JD(U) stalwart and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday diplomatically downplayed the three-day fast by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi of the BJP and its larger presumed import within the NDA, disassociating the JD(U) from the event and keeping his cards close to his chest.
Mr Kumar, projected by the JD(U) as a better choice for the NDA’s prime-ministerial candidate than Mr Modi, described the latter’s much-hyped “Sadbhavana Mission” fast in Ahmedabad, attended by several Bihar BJP ministers and leaders, as the national party’s internal matter in the context of Gujarat. Answering journalists’ questions at his weekly “junta durbar”, Mr Kumar gave the impression that Mr Modi’s fast and the congregation there of the entire BJP leadership had nothing to do with the BJP trying to project a prime ministerial candidate.
“Every individual, leader or chief minister has the freedom to organise a personal or public programme of his choice in a state,” said Mr Kumar, attaching no more importance to Mr Modi’s fast than it being an event of and for Gujarat state. On being asked about the statements of Bihar’s JD(U) leaders on Modi and the BJP-JD(U) coalition government in Bihar, Mr Kumar said curtly: “But there is no alliance with BJP in the state you mentioned”.
In fact, Mr Kumar, who had snubbed Mr Modi during the BJP’s national executive meeting in Patna in June 2010, took care not to utter both “Modi” and “Gujarat” even once as he answered questions about signs of growing differences between the two NDA allies over choosing a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 polls. Two days earlier, when he was asked about Mr Modi starting his fast, Mr Kumar had dramatically raised his hands and joined them at his forehead without saying a word.