Modi wedge drives JD-U, BJP apart

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The stalemate between Bihar’s ruling coalition partners JD(U) and BJP over the desirability of inviting Gujarat chief minister and BJP icon Narendra Modi to campaign in Bihar thickened on Thursday when differences between the two parties on the issue came to the fore and even caused a minor row within the BJP.
While Bihar chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar, in statements made in Delhi and Patna, renewed his stress on maintaining the “old arrangement” between the two NDA allies, the BJP continued its adamantly non-committal stand on the possibility of inviting Mr Narendra Modi for the Bihar election campaigns. Mr Kumar made it abundantly clear on Thursday that there was no need for Mr Modi to campaign in Bihar’s October-November Assembly polls just like in the 2005 Assembly polls and the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
But BJP national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain deepened suspicions in the JD(U) camp by saying in Patna that the saffron party was free to decide on its own. In statements aimed at sending out a message to the robust regional ally to stop dictating terms, Mr Hussain said: “Who will campaign for the BJP is the BJP’s issue and the party will decide it. We are free to decide for ourselves”. He said the BJP national executive would decide on Mr Modi.
Mr Kumar, who has been vehemently opposing all suggestions for Mr Modi’s campaigns in Bihar, said on reaching Patna from Delhi: “Our old arrangement will remain unchanged. BJP leaders know well what we want”. Significantly, the Modi issue displayed its first signs of trouble within the Bihar BJP when state unit president Dr C.P. Thakur on Thursday said he would consider action against party leaders whose statements were likely to cause rifts between the two allies. BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and Bihar BJP minister Giriraj Singh had criticised Mr Kumar on the Modi issue at a meeting in Patna on Wednesday.
“Who talked about action? Did he (Thakur) take any names?” thundered Mr Singh, a most vocal supporter of the invitation to Mr Modi for campaigning, when told about Mr Thakur’s statements.
The Congress and the RJD-LJP have attacked Mr Kumar for “double standards and shadow boxing” over Mr Modi. “If he (Kumar) is so serious about secularism, he must immediately snap ties with the BJP instead of indulging in shadow boxing,” said RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.