Freshs strain between Bihar’s JD(U) and the BJP after chief minister Nitish Kumar’s bitter protests over advertisements praising Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi got a last-minute balm on Sunday in senior BJP leader L.K. Advani’s speech at the end of a BJP rally.
While no other BJP leader uttered Mr Kumar’s name even once, Mr Advani brought a surprise thaw to the growing aloofness, saying it would have been great if Mr Kumar had been at the BJP’s “Bihar Swabhiman Rally”, and that the alliance would not be harmed by “small matters” like the advertisements. This appears to have soothed strained JD(U) nerves as Mr Advani is still respected by most in that party.
JD(U) president Sharad Yadav also tried to do some damage control, saying the relationship between the two parties was “quite old”, and that Saturday’s “unpleasant incident” had passed.