Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Monday, setting the political circuit abuzz about a possible power shift in Bihar.

Nitish was also scheduled to meet Union home minister Amit Shah before returning to Patna but they had to settle for a phone conversation only.

Nitish arrived in Delhi on Sunday, along with his aide and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Kumar Jha, amid the exit polls predicting a landslide win for the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections. There has also been speculation about the chief minister being unwell.

Several political leaders cutting across party lines wondered whether Nitish’s visit was related to a “plan to abdicate” in favour of a BJP chief minister in Bihar in lieu of being accommodated in the Union cabinet or to discuss the road ahead in state politics, something that had not happened in 2019. Others believe he had come to consult doctors owing to his poor health.

There has been no official briefing about what transpired at the meeting with Modi and his telephone conversation with Shah but sources said they discussed power sharing at the Centre if the NDA forms the government.

Rejecting speculation about Nitish’s shift to national politics, a source close to him told The Telegraph: “Our leader was here for a medical check-up as he couldn’t find time for it during the Lok Sabha polls. The meeting with the PM was a courtesy call after arriving in Delhi. The PM invited him to his residence. That is how the meeting materialised. All other speculation are rumours spread by people with vested interests wanting to damage our party.”

Another JDU leader and Bihar minister, however, said political equations were discussed at the Nitish-Modi meeting based on the exit polls, which predicted that the JDU could lose a few seats in the state.

“It is normal for two senior politicians to discuss politics whenever they meet. The alliance is rock solid and the loss of a couple of seats will not affect it,” he said, adding that the JDU has put Bihar on the growth trajectory and would like to join the national development programmes as well.

The JDU missed the bus after the 2019 general election as it rejected the offer of a single cabinet berth at the Centre, demanding proportional representation according to its strength in the Lok Sabha. The NDA had swept 39 of the 40 seats in Bihar in 2019 with the BJP winning 17, JDU 16 and the LJP six.

The JDU later changed its mind and started negotiating with the BJP to join the Union cabinet in mid-2021. It led to its national president and Rajya Sabha member R.C.P. Singh joining the Centre as steel minister. However, this led to bad blood among JDU leaders and resulted in the ouster of Singh from the party, non-renewal of his Rajya Sabha membership and finally the JDU losing the cabinet berth.

It is also considered one of the reasons behind Nitish dumping the NDA in August 2022 to form the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress, which lasted till January 2024 when he did another somersault and joined the NDA.