Nitish talks of BJP poison pill
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar carries a holy chadar to offer at the shrine of Sharif Khanqah in Katihar, Bihar, on Friday.
Political drama and closed-door negotiations continued throughout Friday. While on one hand the BJP and JD(U) continued with their posturing, on the other parleys among non-Congress, non-BJP parties over possible political alliances gathered momentum.
With reports emanating that the JD(U) was preparing to walk out of the NDA, the BJP tried to convince its key ally that the “NDA’s unity is a historical necessity”. However, taking a dig at the BJP, Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar said: “Dua deten hain jeene ki, dawa deten hain marne ki (While you pray for me to survive, you offer me the medicine of death).” The JD(U) has called a meeting of its legislators at Patna on Sunday to take a call on its 17-year-old alliance with the BJP. Back-channel talks to save the alliance are on between the top brass of both parties.
Upset with the BJP for giving signals that Gujarat chief minister and BJP poll panel chairman Narendra Modi would be the party’s face for the 2014 general election, the JD(U) has been posturing and threatening to snap ties with the NDA. The BJP has so far refused to assure the JD(U) that Mr Modi “will not be its PM candidate” and has been stressing its stand that the issue of the PM candidate is yet to be decided. At the same time the party has indicated that the issue of Mr Modi heading the poll panel is “non-negotiable” and “the internal affair of the BJP”.
As the NDA partners seemed to have locked horns over Mr Modi, the non-BJP and non-Congress outfits have begun parleys to look for alternatives. While CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury met JD(U) president Sharad Yadav at his residence, the Samajwadi Party held talks with CPI leader A.B. Bardhan.
During his talks with the SP, the CPI leader said a non-Congress, non-BJP platform could be possible only after the elections, sources said. After his meeting with the JD(U) chief, Mr Yechury, a CPI(M) politburo member, said: “What we want is alternative policies. The Left parties have called a political convention on July 1. It will discuss the alternative policy framework.” On a third front, Mr Yechury felt things would “depend on programmes and policies”.
With regard to its alliance with the BJP, the JD(U) chief said the “alliance with the NDA exists for now but it has to continue under the norms of the national agenda under which the coalition has functioned so far”. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj tweeted: “Only a united Opposition can defeat the Congress. Whenever Opposition got united, Congress was defeated... Therefore, NDA’s unity is a historical necessity. We must do everything to keep NDA united.”
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