New Delhi: Reacting sharply to reports that JD-U does not want Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to
campaign in the Bihar Assembly polls, BJP on Tuesday said it does
not work on conditions set by its allies.
"BJP does not work on conditions laid down by its allies.
BJP will decide who will campaign for the party in the
elections," party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Hussain, however, said BJP has not received any message
from JD-U that Modi and party's hardline Hindutva face Varun
Gandhi should not be asked to campaign in Bihar in the
Assembly polls a few months away.
Reports in the media have said that Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar has laid down the condition that if BJP wants the
alliance with JD-U to continue it would have to keep away
Modi and Gandhi from the campaign.
When asked whether BJP had taken any decision on Modi
joining the campaign, Hussain said, "The issue will arise
when the polls are announced. Then a list of campaigners will
be made and a decision taken."
Modi had stayed away from the BJP-JD(U) joint election
campaign in the 2005 Assembly elections in Bihar as Kumar was
jittery about losing his secular image due to the Gujarat
Chief Minister's alleged role in the 2002 communal riots.
Gandhi had faced the ire of the secular brigade when he
made his alleged hate-speech during the Lok Sabha polls in
2009.
In a similar vein, Bihar BJP chief C P Thakur said, "In
BJP, which leader will campaign where is decided by the
central leadership. They decide which leader will go to which
constituency. It is not decided in advance."
He maintained that in an alliance between two parties,
there are no pre-conditions.
"I do not think this condition (that Modi and Gandhi
keep away from campaigning in Bihar) has been put by Nitish
Kumar. I don't think so," he added.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 23:50