Patna, Jun 5 (IANS): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday claimed that the opposition parties meeting scheduled for June 12 had to be deferred due to refusal of Congress top leadership.

He added that the presence of Congress was needed for the meeting.

"Except for the Congress, the majority of the opposition political parties had agreed to meet in Patna on June 12. The Congress leadership was not comfortable with the venue. Since, there was no point in meeting without the grand-old party, I asked him to discuss within the party and then finalise a date. We will match the date with every opposition political party and then decide for the meeting. For now, the scheduled meeting on June 12 stands postponed," Kumar said.

Asked about the expected date, Kumar said: "I am wondering if the meeting will take place very soon."

Sources have said that Congress is not agreeing on the venue of the meeting as the Congress think tank believes that they have a direct contest with opposition regional parties like AAP in Delhi and Punjab, TMC in West Bengal, NRS led by K Chandrashekher Rao in Telangana, and Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.