Just a week after Bihar chief minister and JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar said all was well between his party and ally BJP, the regional party is rattled by hoardings and posters of Narendra Modi put up by the BJP along the roads of Mr Kumar’s ongoing Seva Yatra tour of the state.
While many JD(U) leaders feel the BJP could be deliberately instigating an inopportune confrontation on the divisive issue of Kumar’s reservations against the Gujarat chief minister and Hindutva icon, BJP leaders sought to explain away the posters, saying it was the work of the BJP’s district unit workers.
As Mr Kumar went about inaugurating various welfare schemes and distributing financial incentives to Muslim youth in Gopalganj on Thursday, he was reportedly startled to see many hoardings, banners and posters with Narendra Modi’s photographs put up on the roads and at several key locations in the western town. These publicity materials, apparently put up a couple of days before Mr Kumar’s scheduled travel through those roads, were full of praise for Mr Modi and described him as a leader most suitable to be India’s next Prime Minister. The hoardings also sported pictures of BJP’s Gopalganj district chief Brahmanand Rai and other local BJP leaders.
The JD(U) was aghast to see such an unexpected eruption of open support for Modi by the BJP.
JD(U) sources said that when the party’s leaders accompanying Mr Kumar in the tour raised the matter with him, he said it was a “serious issue” but asked them not to make any public statements on it.
“These banners and hoardings were not officially put up by our party. Some enthusiastic workers did so to express their respect for Narendra Modi,” said Mr Rai.