JOIN USRailway Minister Lalu Prasad and Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan are likely to skip a meeting of the union cabinet called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Friday, sources said.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chiefs, key members of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), seem to be miffed over Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's praise of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, they said.
At a press conference in the capital earlier this week, Rahul Gandhi had antagonised Lalu Prasad and Paswan by praising Janata Dal-United's chief minister Nitish Kumar's developmental work in Bihar.
"There is no programme to go to Delhi. He is busy meeting party workers," said Lalu Prasad's close aide in Patna.
According to Paswan's office, he was busy attending election meetings in Kolkata and was scheduled to arrive in Delhi only late Saturday.
Elections for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar ended Thursday in the fourth round of polling.
The cabinet meeting is expected to review president's rule in Meghalaya and also examine certain international agreements, said Prithviraj Chauhan, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office.
"It is a routine cabinet meeting. One should not read much if they (Lalu and Paswan) do not come. I have not heard anything," Chauhan told IANS.
The central government imposed president's rule in Meghalaya on March 19, a day after the state government narrowly survived a trust vote with the help of the assembly speaker.