Kumar has been calling for forging a grand alliance of secular parties at the national level on the lines of the 2015 electoral alliance or 'Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar to take on the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and is learnt to have raised the issue with Gandhi.
The Congress is a partner in the Bihar government with Kumar's JD-U and Lalu Prasad's RJD, after the three parties contested and won the assembly elections as part of the grand alliance.