Patna, October 17: While the NDA’s election campaign has picked up momentum in Bihar, the prospect of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sharing dais with the BJP central leaders is increasingly looking bleak although both the sides continue to maintain that this was a non-issue.
Sensing the CM’s mind, the BJP has now nuanced its joint campaign plan in which senior leader L K Advani will stay away from electioneering for the first phase of polls.
Hoping to put up a united show, the BJP had last month announced that both the parties would hold around 100 joint rallies during the campaign. Clearly the plan has not materialised. The situation was further complicated by the Ayodhya verdict after which the BJP had to chant the Ram Mandir slogan.
Now that the chances of Kumar, who has carefully cultivated a pro-minority image, sharing dais with Advani or, for that matter, any of the central leaders is looking dim — although the BJP still maintains that the schedule for joint campaign is being worked out — a senior party leader went on record to say that the BJP’s definition of joint campaign is not exactly leaders sharing public space.
“The BJP-JD(U) joint campaign is on. Our definition of joint campaign is leaders of both the parties campaigning in each other’s constituencies. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has so far addressed over a dozen meetings for BJP candidates and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has campaigned for JD(U) nominees,” said senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain.
Sources in the BJP said Advani was staying away from electioneering for the first phase of polls —for which the campaigning ends Tuesday —since it mostly covers Muslim-majority constituencies. BJP leaders strongly reject the perception that it was being done under pressure from the JD(U) and Kumar.
Sources, however, admit that the first phase mostly covered Muslim-dominated areas and Advani —the architect of the Ram Temple movement —campaigning in these seats would prove to be counter-productive. “We want to keep the focus on development and governance,” a senior leader admitted candidly.
BJP sources said Advani will campaign for five days. He will address election rallies from next week but in the constituencies where polling would be held in the second and subsequent phases. While the joint campaign is an impossibility, both JD(U) and the BJP would come out with joint advertisements.
———Agencies