PATNA, JUNE 13
The BJP-JD(U) ties were under strain today despite the two sides trying to soft-pedal the controversy over the Nitish-Modi advertisement projecting the Gujarat Chief Minister.
At the end of the BJP national executive meeting here, nothing appeared to have gone well for the alliance with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar cut up over him being clubbed with Modi in full-page advertisements in local dailies.
BJP went into a damage control mode with senior leader L K Advani saying he would have been happy had Kumar been present at the party’s Swabhiman rally marking the launch of the campaign for the Assembly polls in the State.
“There can be differences in an alliance. I read in the newspapers that due to an advertisement, there were cracks. But by shaking hands, how can there be cracks. It can only lead to friendship,” Advani said in his address at the well-attended rally.
While Kumar’s immediate reaction was not available, JD(U) spokesman Shivanand Tiwari maintained that the photo showing Kumar and Modi has “definitely dealt a blow to the NDA in Bihar.
“We will not appreciate any such action which will weaken the agenda of NDA in Bihar as JD(U) is a Bihar-based party,” he said.
Earlier, when the photograph was taken at Ludhiana, the party had objected to that, he said.
“We appreciate the gesture of Advani that Kumar should have been present at the rally. But, it was not possible as it was a rally of the BJP and not NDA. Nitish and Advani have enjoyed good relations for a long period. They were both ministers in the Vajpayee government,” Tiwari said soon after meeting Kumar, who returned to the state capital from Nawada.
An upset Kumar had cancelled dinner he was hosting for the BJP top brass yesterday.
In the previous state polls and the Lok Sabha elections, Kumar had not allowed Modi to campaign in Bihar.
With the Bihar Assembly elections due later this year, the JD(U) leader has made it known that he would not like to be seen with Modi, the face of hardline Hindutva, and be associated with any move that could anger his Muslim vote base, constituting 16 per cent of the state’s population.
