Despite Mr Narendra Modi continuing to be the sore point between the BJP and the JD(U), the BJP appears keen on getting its Hindutva icon to campaign for the party in Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls. The BJP’s ongoing efforts to make peace with the JD(U) have not made the national party drop its plans for Mr Modi’s campaign in Bihar.
“There is no visa-permit system in Bihar. There is no Article 370 here. Everyone is free to come to Bihar,” said BJP national spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain in Patna on Friday in his reply to questions about the party’s latest stand on Modi’s possible campaign tour of Bihar. Hussain, the only Muslim BJP member of the Lok Sabha and the only member from Bihar in the BJP’s 20-member central election committee, however, denied that the JD(U) had put any conditions on the BJP about any of its leaders.
But relations between the two parties looked to be slowly improving as Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP participated in the Vishwas Yatra programmes of chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) after a sullen interruption. Both leaders were seen together at several public meetings in Bihar’s southern districts. Mr Sushil Modi even spoke admiringly of Mr Kumar, hinting that the two parties’ 15-year-old alliance could be coming out of danger.
Mr Hussain said there was no connection between Mr Sushil Modi’s resumption of Vishwas Yatra with Mr Kumar and speculated instructions to Modi to this effect by the BJP’s central leadership. “The yatra is a programme of the Bihar government and our party’s central leadership has nothing to do with it. The party looks at organisational matters only,” he said.
Even as the JD(U) is still viciously opposed to the idea of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi coming to Bihar for campaigning and maintains that the NDA’s campaigning would be led by Mr Kumar, the BJP appears not to have taken a final decision on this issue. “Of course, Nitishji is a star campaigner himself,” said Mr Hussain when asked about the JD(U)’s opposition. “The clouds of misconceptions around the BJP-JD(U) alliance will soon be over. We are moving positively towards resumption of normal ties.”