JD(U) mentally prepare for sepration?

Patna. Differences between the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) touched a new high on Wednesday, with JD (U) insiders saying they are mentally prepared for a separation.

Targeting Narendra Modi for the second time in a week, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said the NDA government would not have lost power in the 2004 general elections had the Gujarat government been dismissed in the wake of the 2002 riots. This comment did not go down well with the BJP and its mother organisation. Both stood firmly behind Modi.

JD(U) MP Shivanand Tiwari lashed out at Modi blaming him for the defeat of the NDA government in 2004. “The NDA cannot come to power with a “fanatic face” and the JD(U)  will not compromise on principles on which it had joined the Opposition alliance in 1996,” Tiwari said adding there would be no compromise on secularism. “ It does not matter if the Bihar government stays or goes.  We will not compromise .”

However, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav is trying hard to keep his party’s relationship with the BJP intact.

According to sources, Yadav assured BJP leaders that his party will do everything to evolve a consensus on all the issues including that of the prime ministerial candidate of the NDA. He tried to underplay the issue.

Amid the war of words between some BJP and JD (U) leaders, animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh was quite vocal. After calling Kumar pseudo-secular, he, on Wednesday, dared the CM to sack him. “I have been made a minister by the BJP, not by the CM,” he said while seeking a definition of secularism from the people who raked up this issue “without any rhyme or reason”.

Singh said it came like “bemausam barsat (an untimely move)”, adding when discussions were going on Presidential election, the issue of prime ministerial candidate was raked up for “obvious political reasons”. He was visibly happy over the intervention of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in this matter and supported his stand.