NEW DELHI: Despite speculation that Friday's cabinet meeting could be "political" in nature and that some ministers like Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan had chosen to stay away, the agenda was strictly official with the Centre revoking President's rule in Meghalaya.

Speculation that RJD and LJP leaders were staying away did not prove well-grounded as Lalu asked a senior party leader and rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh to make sure he attended the meeting. Lalu's right hand man, Prem Gupta, also attended the meeting.

Earlier, Paswan, who was in Kolkata, said there was no move to "boycott" the Cabinet meeting in view of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's praise of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Though Gandhi's words have rankled, neither Paswan nor Lalu are in a mood for adventurism given reports that they have fared poorly. Also, they are waiting to see just how well Congress does in the elections.

The decision to lift central rule in Meghalaya came after Congress and NCP hammered out a tieup to tide over the gap in numbers in the state assembly. The Centre had imposed President's rule after a controversial trust vote. While it led to bad blood between NCP unit headed by Purno Sangma and Congress, a brief spell of Raj Bhavan's rule seems to have brought them together to instal a popular government.

The Meghalaya move was the highlight of the cabinet meeting which was called for one of its last sittings in UPA rule. As the issues on agenda were routine, its convening had kicked up speculation over possible political discussions which could take place.

It was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but mostly saw the attendance of Congress ministers whose states have completed the elections. RJD's rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and company affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta were present to scotch speculation.

Among others in attendance were Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, H R Bhardwaj, Jaipal Reddy, Santosh Mohan Dev, Meira Kumar, Kapil Sibal, Prithviraj Chavan and M S Gill.

The agenda had classification of Telugu and Kannada as classical language, review of the PM's 15-point programme for welfare of minorities and endorsement of MoUs with foreign countries.

Urgent items requiring clearance included revision of estimates of SAI/CPWD for development and upgradation of stadia for Commonwealth Games-2010 and extension of the facility of bulk discount to NAFED for disposal of cotton procured under MSP.