With both the BJP and the JD(U) seriously watching their growing frictions that arose from the clash of images between Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi over secularism in poll-bound Bihar, an uneasy calm prevailed at the Patna state headquarters of both the parties on Monday.
Even as the BJP central leadership was scheduled to meet with some Bihar BJP leaders in Delhi to discuss the coalition crisis ahead of the November Assembly polls, there was little interaction between leaders of the two ruling parties in Patna.
Although chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) was seen with deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP at the swearing-in of the new chief justice of Patna high court, the two leaders spoke little apart from exchanging cursory pleasantries.
Continuing his mysterious silence in the face of growing tensions between the two parties and speculations about an imminent snapping of ties, Mr Kumar sidestepped questions about his position. “Tension mat lijiye, relax kijiye,” (Don’t get tense, relax) he told reporters before heading for his ongoing Vishwas Yatra tour.
BJP sources said the party’s Bihar president, Dr C.P. Thakur and Bhagalpur MP, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, met with party patriarch L.K. Advani in Delhi on Monday morning and apprised him of the situation in Bihar.
“The three leaders discussed the new cold in our Bihar coalition with the JD(U) and also the previous frictions we have had. But any decision on how to deal with the crisis would be taken after Dr Thakur and Hussain have a meeting with party chief Nitin Gadkari,” said a Bihar BJP minister to this newspaper.
The “crisis” between the BJP and the JD(U) in Bihar is essentially about the BJP’s Hindutva icon Narendra Modi and the BJP’s evident initiatives recently to accord him greater legitimacy in Bihar in view of the impending Assembly polls and, as BJP sources admit, for a greater national role for Mr Modi.
The JD(U)’s grave concerns about a possible fast erosion of its Muslim vote base in Bihar have snowballed its old frictions with the BJP into the present situation of a near separation.
“Returning the flood aid money to Gujarat and cancelling the dinner for BJP leaders are only the surface wounds of a crisis, whose centre lies in the JD(U)’s fear of Narendra Modi’s possible campaign for the BJP in Bihar,” said a senior BJP leader. “The BJP would not like to face another humiliation in Bihar by preventing Narendra Modi from campaigning,” he added. The BJP is meanwhile busy conducting regular meetings at its state headquarters between its ministers and the common people seeking help with their problems.
All BJP ministers are attending this programme everyday barring Sundays and passing appropriate orders to the government officials concerned.
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PIL is filed against CM
Patna, June 21: A PIL was on Monday filed in the Patna high court against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for allegedly not utilising the Rs 5 crores in funds for Kosi flood relief received from Gujarat in 2008. Chhaya Sarkar filed the PIL alleging that the chief minister, being chairman of the state disaster management authority, had committed an offence under Section 53 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 by not using the funds received from Gujarat.
—PTI