Vadodara: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday avoided a question if he would campaign in Bihar assembly poll.When a mediaperson asked Modi, whose proposed campaign in Bihar has opposed by BJP's ruling alliance partner JD (U) in the state, whether he would take part in campaigning, he did not reply and left for the airport on his way back to Gandhinagar.
The appearance of Modi's photo along with that of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar in an advertisement had pushed the alliance between the two parties to the brink some months ago.
JD(U) supremo Sharad Yadav and his party colleague Shivanand Tiwari made it clear yesterday they would not like Modi to take part in electioneering in Bihar.
A flip-flop by a BJP leader that Modi will campaign in Bihar elections yesterday set off fresh strains in the party's ties with JD-U which threatened to review the alliance between the two parties. BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is in-charge of central programmes and campaigns committee of BJP, had first said that Modi would campaign but later retracted saying he had not made any such statement. Shivanand Tiwari had said he would request the party leadership to reconsider the alliance with BJP.
"The BJP top brass knows that we do not want Modi's participation in the election campaign in Bihar and we had got a good result in Lok Sabha election minus the Gujarat Chief Minister," he said adding BJP could spring a surprise by suddenly bringing Modi into the campaign field and therefore the party needed to reconsider its strategy.
JD-U chief Sharad Yadav, however, dismissed the reports about Modi's campaigning as "baseless". "Naqvi has met me in the morning and discussed about the party's campaigners in Bihar. The names he told included that of BJP President Nitin Gadkari, L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and others. He did not name any Chief Minister or any leader from states," Yadav, who is also the NDA convenor told PTI. PTI
