As the BJP is taking its own time in anointing Narendra Modi as the campaign committee chief, its alliance partner JD(U) has made it clear that it has no objection to appointment of the Gujarat CM as the poll campaign chief as it is an internal matter of the BJP.
The JD(U)’s assurance might help cool down the heat generated after BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy’s strong advocacy for taking the help of BJP’s top leadership including Narendra Modi for improving victory chances of NDA candidates in the 2014 lS polls.
“The JD(U) needs help of Narendra Modi as much as the BJP for improving their respective positions in the election,” Rudy had remarked last Thursday.
State JD(U) president Vashisht Narayan Singh told The Pioneer that his party does not find any valid reason to raise objection to the appointment of Modi as chief of the election committee as a political party enjoys the freedom to take decision on its internal matters.
When asked whether his party will oppose election campaigning by Modi, he said that it is up to the BJP how it wants to use its leaders but the JD(U) will take any decisions on such matters when an appropriate time will come for it.
On PM nominee for the next general elections, Singh said that his party had made its position very clear on the issue of the Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 lok Sabha elections and now the party does not want to enter into a debate with any party on a daily basis.
He said that the JD(U) has also given a deadline to the BJP to declare its PM nominee and hence his party cannot do much beyond it.
A close confidant of Nitish Kumar and JD(U) MlC Deveshchandra Thakur told The Pioneer that his party has no problem if Modi is appointed as the chief of the BJP election campaign committee as the BJP has the prerogative of taking calls on its internal matters.
“We will not accept any unilateral decision by the BJP on this matter and ultimately trying to impose its decision on the coalition partners,” he contended.
“Our concern is confined to the manner in which the name of the NDA Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections is announced as the JD(U) will definitely insist on building up a consensus among all NDA partners before the name is made public,” he added.
The senior JD(U) leader said that his party will also not have any objection if Modi visits Bihar to campaign for the NDA candidates contesting the lok Sabha elections.
Modi had not campaigned for the NDA candidates either in the 2009 lok Sabha elections or in the 2010 State Assembly elections.
The State BJP has already decided to invite Narendra Modi to attend ‘Hoonkar Rally’ to be organised at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on October 27.
The NaMo factor has also played its part in the Maharajganj lok Sabha bypoll though the newly elected RJD MP from the constituency, Prabhunath Singh declined to accept the suggestion that any such factor was at play.
Several local BJP leaders including former district councillors from BJP, Ashutosh Singh and Vashishtha Narayan confirmed that party workers shied away from making full efforts for the victory of the JD(U) candidate and State Education Minister PK Shahi in the by-election, aggrieved over Nitish Kumar’s consistent opposition to Modi.
Prabhunath Singh who was a long-term associate of Nitish Kumar and a JD(U) MP on three successive terms said that Kumar could not claim himself secular by just opposing Modi. He said that the Chief Minister’s opposition to Modi is only for the sake of improving his own “personal” image.