Nitish to campaign against Modi in Gujarat polls

New Delhi: The fight lines between Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are set to sharpen further with Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav saying that Nitish will campaign against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat as there is no National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the state.

“Nitish Kumar will campaign in Gujarat. We can have alliance in several other states but Gujarat. We have been contesting elections in Gujarat. There is no NDA there. There is no JD(U)-BJP alliance in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi among others,” said Sharad Yadav.

Modi and Nitish have shared a tumultuous relationship with the Bihar Chief Minister declining to allow the Gujarat Chief Minister to campaign in Bihar during the 2010 Assembly elections. He also came back a cheque of Rs 5 crore that the Gujarat govt had given to Bihar for Kosi flood relief.

A few months ago Kumar also raised the question of the next NDA prime ministerial candidate and indicating that he would not favour Modi if the BJP tried to project him for the topmost political post of the country.

Modi, too, lost no chance to take on Kumar and in June 2012 accused Bihar politicians of resorting to caste-based politics, blaming it for the state’s economic backwardness.

Posted on Sep 10 2012. Filed under Indian Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry