In the first clear sign of a thaw between the JD(U) and BJP, the latter on Friday indicated at a rapprochement with the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) in Bihar.
As deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi resumed his Vishwas Yatra with the chief minister on Friday after cancelling the same last week, the BJP appeared to have scaled down its tough stand on Kumar by taking a more pragmatic political approach. State BJP president CP Thakur, back in Patna after confabulations with top party leaders in Delhi, said ?questions of Narendra Modi visiting Bihar for poll campaigns were premature and could be decided 15 days before campaigning begins?.
There were also signs of Kumar responding to the BJP?s softening of stand. The CM and his deputy praised each other for good governance during Friday?s Vishwas Yatra to Madanpur in Aurangabad. Kumar during his address repeatedly referred to ?hamari sarkar (our government)? while enumerating the coalition government?s achievements.
While the BJP?s national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said talks had been on between top BJP and JD(U) leadership, Thakur was more forthright in accepting that BJP leaders had been discussing seat-sharing with JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav. ?We are surely discussing seat-sharing and even swapping of Assembly seats with the JD(U),? said Thakur, adding that Narendra Modi issue did not come up during the discussions.
Shahnawaz said the party?s high-powered Parliamentary Board member M Venkaiah Naidu had categorically stated that the JD(U) had not put any precondition for talks with the BJP.
Kumar, desperately trying to create a Muslim constituency for the JD(U) with targeted welfare and education schemes, had reportedly asked the BJP to swap some Muslim and EBC-dominated seats with his party. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had to concede Kishanganj seat to the JD(U), which it lost to the Congress.
Hussain said the ?cloud of misgivings will be soon cleared? even as he accepted that Kumar had been very much a star campaigner for the NDA. He, however, promptly added that the BJP too had many star campaigners.
Asked if Sushil Modi resuming the Vishwas Yatra with Kumar was a compromise on the part of the BJP, Hussain said the party central leadership ?would never interfere with the state government?s functioning?.