Nitish to attend foundation-laying of AMU centre

After much controversy, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has finally received an invitation to the foundation-laying ceremony of an Aligarh Muslim University centre by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at Kisanganj tomorrow, which he today confirmed he would attend.
Invitation letters from Union Human Resources Development minister M M Pallam Raju and Vice-Chancellor of AMU reached the chief minister and state education minister P K Shahi late last evening, Kumar's secretary Atish Chandra told PTI today.
The chief minister who was away in Banka and returned here in the evening agreed to attend the ceremony tomorrow, sources in the CMO said.

The Bihar government had lodged a strong protest with Raju, claiming that it was not invited to the inauguration by Gandhi due to political reasons, though the AMU yesterday insisted that it had sent an invitation to the Chief Minister.
AMU Vice Chancellor Zameeruddin Shah had said the 'confusion' over the invite could have been due to a 'mix-up' in the CM's office and that he had sent a second invitation to Kumar.
A sulking Kumar had yesterday hit out at the central government saying it had taken the 'cowardly' decision as it was afraid that Bihar government would get credit for the AMU centre.

Congress today attacked Kumar for raking up a controversy over the issue with state party president Ashok Chaudhary saying that AMU centre was a 'dream project' of Sonia Gandhi and 'the CM in the garb of AMU is trying to derive political advantage' by 'hoodwinking' Muslims.