LK yatra: Nitish blacks out Modi
Senior BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha during the party’s national executive meeting in New Delhi on Friday.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is likely to be virtually blacked out in Bihar during the passage of Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch L.K. Advani’s anti-corruption rath yatra through the state as the party has agreed to demands by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar not to have Mr Modi’s pictures on the BJP’s posters or cut-outs.
With the BJP, Bihar’s junior ruling ally, agreeing to Mr Kumar’s demands, apparently to ensure that the state’s Muslims do not get upset by triumphant displays of the Hindutva poster-boy’s pictures, a JD(U) Muslim MP known for his open anti-BJP stance announced that he had no problem attending the inauguration of Mr Advani’s yatra along with Mr Kumar.
“I will be glad to be at Sitabdiara village (in Bihar’s Saran district) when Advaniji begins his rath yatra against corruption on October 11. When our CM himself will flag off this yatra, there is no reason for me not to be there with him and Advaniji,” said Janata Dal (United) MP from Begusarai Monazir Hasan in a marked change of heart towards the BJP.
Mr Hasan, a critic of Mr Kumar till recently who had been quiet on Mr Advani’s yatra so far, surprised many in the JD(U) by wholeheartedly endorsing the yatra.
Although BJP leaders in Bihar refrained from being forthright on the question of the party’s reported decision not to have Mr Modi’s pictures on cut-outs and posters during the yatra, sources said the decision was taken after Mr Kumar’s categorical insistence to that effect.
“After securing Mr Kumar’s support for the yatra and his admirable willingness to flag it off, these changes were minor adjustments made in the best interests of the NDA’s future in Bihar,” said a senior BJP leader.
Muslims in Bihar comprise 16.5 per cent of the state population and remain a formidable electoral force. Both the JD(U) and the BJP are decidedly mindful about not upsetting their sentiments.
Mr Nitish Kumar has been extremely wary of the Gujarat chief minister ever since the National Democratic Alliance came to power in Bihar in 2005.
The BJP, succumbing to Mr Kumar’s insistence, has not invited Modi for election campaigns in Bihar ever since.
Mr Kumar had shocked the BJP’s top national leaders by spectacularly calling off a dinner hosted for them in 2010 and returning `5 crore in flood aid to Gujarat after newspaper advertisements showed Mr Modi and him holding hands.
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