Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Saturday formally invited Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to join the National Democratic Alliance, ANI reported. Kumar had visited the BJP chief’s residence in Delhi on Friday after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two leaders had met for the first time after the recent political shift in Bihar where the Janata Dal (United) broke away from the grand alliance with the Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. Kumar then had formed an alliance with the BJP to become the chief minister of Bihar once again.

The JD(U) is expected to announce its decision to join the NDA in its national executive meeting in Patna on August 19, PTI reported quoting an unidentified JD(U) leader as saying. “When we are together in government in Bihar it is only natural that our party joins the Union government,” the party leader told the news agency on Friday.

The invite comes even as the Opposition is attempting to form a unity to fight against the saffron party in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.