As the BJP in Uttar Pradesh faces up to its bypoll setback after a polarising campaign that elevated ?love jihad? to a central theme and promoted Yogi Adityanath to the status of star campaigner, the party is affirming a significantly separate course in neighbouring Bihar, a state also crucial to its Lok Sabha victory.
Speaking to The Indian Express, senior Bihar BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi reiterated the party line on ?love jihad? but nuanced it ? distancing the state unit from the Yogi Adityanath-style of rhetoric and promising to give ?a good number? of tickets to Muslims in next year?s Assembly elections.
The BJP, said Modi, is opposed to inter-religious marriages that involve ?forced conversion and emotional blackmail? and will oppose all cases where it sees an ?organised effort?. In many places, ?now a design is visible?, he said, mentioning Kerala, Karnataka and UP.
But, ?I am not in favour of using the term love jihad? and Yogi Adityanath is ?not the face of the BJP?, only ?one of its 40 star campaigners? for the UP bypolls, said Modi. If the Yogi had made in Bihar the kind of controversial statements he made in UP, ?we would have contradicted him?, he said. ?There is no Adityanath in Bihar?, said Modi, adding that the state unit of the party had ?not co-opted? the Adityanath-type hardliners.
Adityanath was ?reprimanded? and ?cautioned? by the Election Commission last week for speeches that invoked religion and allegedly violated the model code of conduct.