Patna, Dec 26 (IANS): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has avoided meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last 15 days.

The Prime Minister is going for the Namami Gange programme in Kolkata on December 30 and Nitish Kumar has decided not to go and instead, will send his deputy Tejashwi Yadav for it.

The Centre has invited Chief Ministers of all north and east Indian states including West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Bihar's Nitish Kumar, Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath and others. Sources have said that Banerjee is scheduled to participate in this event but Nitish Kumar will skip it.

After the formation of a grand alliance government in Bihar, Nitish Kumar did not participate in a the recent meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council chaired by Amit Shah in Kolkata. On that occasion too, he had sent Tejashwi Yadav and state Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary.

JD-U spokesperson Abhishek Jha said: "He is a Chief Minister of state and has so many works here. Hence, he is not going there."

Asked if Nitish Kumar is avoiding facing Modi and HM Amit Shah, Jha asked why would he do so. "He is a mass leader and has huge public support of public," he said.