BJP with RSS; oppugns Nitish for remarks

20 Jun 2012 Evaluate

With two years in hand for the 2014 elections, the BJP led coalition NDA is gearing up to succeed UPA-II this time. The largest opposition party has joined hands with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). However, the BJP led coalition NDA is contending amongst to decide the Prime Minister candidate. Till date there was shadow fight between Nitish Kumar chief minister of Bihar and Narendra Modi his counterpart in Gujarat, now they are openly criticizing each other.

Nitish Kumar, in an interview, has refused to be in the PM row citing “cannot even dream of this high office”. By describing the qualities of PM, he said, “To me the leader of the coalition should have secular credentials. It should be someone who has absolute faith in democratic values. In a multi-religious and multi-lingual country like ours, the leader should not have rough edges in his personality.”

On asking about declaring the state out of bounds for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for state polls, Kumar eluded stating BJP already has enough capable leaders within the state to handle the assembly elections. In his interview Kumar has clearly showcased his rivalry with Modi by defining the qualities that an ideal PM should have, however casting off Modi from the race.

The largest opposition party BJP has strongly reacted on these remarks, senior leader Balbir Punj said 'I want to make it clear that we have not given authority to anybody to give certificates of secularism to individual leaders in the BJP. All the leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party right from Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Narendra Modi are bound by the manifesto, policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party and also of the NDA.' By adding further, he said 'I want to remind the country that Nitish Kumar was part of the NDA government in 2002 and he continued to be till 2004, then the Gujarat riots happened and now that is history.' RSS’s leader Mohan Bhagwat is supporting Narendra Modi as the coalition’s prime ministerial candidate.

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