Disappointed at the BJP eventually nominating Narendra Modi as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, Bihar chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar on Saturday described the move as potentially destructive for the saffron party and said India’s people would not tolerate a “divisive” leader.
Mr Modi’s nomination came as a personal shock for Mr Kumar, whose resistance of Mr Modi’s swift rise within the BJP had forced him in June to hive the JD(U) off the NDA after 17 years of togetherness. Having won two successive Assembly polls (2005 and 2010) and the 2009 Lok Sabha polls in Bihar in alliance with the BJP, he was widely lauded within the NDA as a successful chief minister and future leader during the over seven years of NDA rule in Bihar. With his growing national and global profile stemming from the Bihar turnaround story, he was even projected by the JD(U) as the NDA’s best possible prime ministerial candidate till May.
“Vinash kale vipreet buddhi (wrong decisions are often taken at the time of destruction),” said Mr Kumar to journalists in Patna referring to Mr Modi’s formal nomination by the BJP as the NDA’s PM candidate. “People of the country will not tolerate or accept a leader whose ideas and policies are divisive,” he added.
“We (JD-U) had sensed three months ago that the BJP will name him (Modi) its PM candidate and ended our alliance with the BJP,” said Mr Kumar, whose dependence on Bihar’s crucial Muslim vote base for the NDA’s massive electoral successes is believed to have spurred his resistance to Mr Modi’s rise and the JD(U)’s ultimate parting of ways.
BJP leaders in Bihar, euphoric after the Gujarat chief minister’s rise to the top contender’s post, dismissed Mr Kumar’s opinions. “Nitish Kumar just refuses to see the ground realities. Only time will show who gets destroyed and which decision was wrong,” said senior BJP leader and former Bihar minister Giriraj Singh.
“The BJP is busy chanting the NaMo mantra, but he will ultimately prove a big disappointment for the party,” said RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. “Modi has become synonymous with communalism. Congress should come forward to check such elements,” he added.
LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan said: “The RSS forced the BJP to name Modi its PM candidate as the party has little stock of leaders left for it is out of power for ten years. There is not even the remotest chance of the BJP coming to power in 2014.”