JD-U softens Modi, Varun stand

[1]

Despite acute unease in its ranks caused by the scheduled participation of the BJP’s controversial Hindutva mascots in the party’s Patna conclave, the JD(U) has uncharacteristically refrained from voicing its opposition, hinting at a shift in position made necessary by a host of expedient factors.
The JD(U)’s newfound softness for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Hindutva poster boy Varun Gandhi, slated to attend the BJP’s two-day national executive meet in Patna beginning June 12, is in sharp contrast to its stand during the Lok Sabha polls a year back.
JD(U) leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, an avowed adherent of secularism despite heading a coalition government with the BJP, had ensured that both Mr Modi and Mr Gandhi did not join the NDA’s campaigning in Bihar.
While the JD(U) still lays great emphasis on its secular credentials, analysts say its change of heart may have emerged less out of tolerance and more from its growing realisation of the many troubles it is currently facing on its way to the Assembly polls.
The JD(U), evidently, does not want to make matters worse for itself by sparking off a confrontation with the BJP on the delicate issue of communalism.
“It is a BJP function. We have absolutely no problems with Mr Modi and Mr Gandhi visiting Bihar to take part in their party’s function,” said JD(U) state president Vijay Chaudhary on Sunday. Before this, despite murmurs in the JD(U)’s think tank over possible damages to the party’s secular face by the BJP meet, senior BJP leaders had claimed that the JD(U) had no opposition to Mr Modi and Mr Gandhi speaking at the saffron party’s rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan scheduled on June 13.
Sources said Mr Nitish Kumar, currently away touring Bihar with his “Viswas Yatra” campaign, had asked the JD(U) leaders, especially its minority leaders, not to issue any statement either to the media or at any other forum about the BJP’s national executive meet.
Intense factionalism within the JD(U), especially the possibility of Mr Kumar’s estranged party colleagues forming a rival political party, and the likely emergence of the Congress as a force to reckon with are said to be the reasons for the JD(U)’s decision to keep the BJP in good humour for a stronger NDA entering the polls.