Modi as PM: Nitish issues warning,party talks pullout

A top JD(U) leader in Bihar today said that the party would snap its alliance with the BJP if Narendra Modi was projected as prime minister — even as a BJP minister in Nitish’s cabinet launched a direct attack on the CM.

At a JD(U) meeting last week,Nitish had said that the NDA must declare as its prime ministerial candidate a person with a “clean and secular image”. He did not name Narendra Modi,but the implication was clear. More so since his remarks were seen as a counter to the Gujarat CM’s claim that “caste politics is stalling development in Bihar and UP”.

Nitish also used a local proverb that loosely translated into “the pot calling the kettle black”.

Asked about his remark on a “secular” PM candidate here this evening,Nitish said: “Golden words are not repeated.”

He found support in his deputy and BJP leader Sushil Modi,who stressed the line that the chief minister had taken. “Three weeks ago,we had requested our (BJP) national leadership to announce a candidate for PM as liberal as A B Vajpayee,” Sushil Modi said.

Their cabinet colleague and BJP hardliner Giriraj Singh,however,took a completely different line. “Do we need Nitish Kumar to tell us who is secular and who is not? This could be a case of kahin pe nigahein,kahin pe nishana (suggesting that the Bihar CM is targeting Narendra Modi because he has his eyes set on becoming PM himself).”

Former state minister and frontline JD(U) leader Devesh Chandra Thakur was direct: “JD(U) will break its alliance with BJP if Narendra Modi is projected as the PM.”

In the house of 243 in Bihar (where elections are due in 2015),the JD(U) has 117 MLAs,barely five short of a simple majority.

Lok Janshakti Party leader and Nitish critic Ramvilas Paswan described the chief minister’s remark as a cynical move to position himself for prime ministership. “He knew that Modi was in NDA when he tied up with the BJP. Why didn’t he probe the Godhra attack when he was railway minister? He’s floating his own candidature as PM,” Paswan said.

He added that it was hard to believe that with barely 20 MPs,the JD(U) “could veto the NDA’s choice of PM”.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad said,“Nitish should clarify to all of us who is secular in the NDA. He is in power with the BJP,and then takes a stand on secularism; he wants the best of both worlds.”

The latest JD(U)-BJP spat comes when an increasingly assertive Narendra Modi has got his party president Nitin Gadkari to ease out rival Sanjay Joshi and underline his clout in his party.