By IANS
Patna : Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Tuesday he has no problem with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominating L.K. Advani as its prime ministerial candidate.
Nitish Kumar, who heads a National Democratic Alliance coalition government comprising JD-U and BJP in Bihar, said: “There is no problem with Advani as prime minister so long as the NDA’s common minimum programme is not violated.”
A day after the BJP decided to project Advani as its prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections, Nitish Kumar told newspersons Tuesday that the BJP was free to project Advani as its prime ministerial candidate. It was the BJP’s “internal affair”.
Nitish Kumar said that after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the second most senior and respected leader of the BJP and NDA was Advani. “It was a natural process to project Advani as PM,” Nitish Kumar said.
In reference to the controversial side of Advani, Nitish Kumar said, “our (NDA’s) concern is to stick to the common minimum programme. We have agreed to an alliance with the BJP at the central level in our CMP, our concern is to stick to the CMP”.
Nitish Kumar said his party was contesting against the BJP in Gujarat but has an alliance with it in Bihar. “We have a different arrangement in Gujarat and Bihar but at the central level we have an alliance with the BJP on the basis of the CMP,” he said.
Coming out in defence of Advani, he said the BJP leader had been misunderstood inside and outside his party. “Even within the BJP, Advani was misunderstood after his Pakistan visit and his statement on Pakistan founder M.A. Jinnah. Similarly people outside the party also misunderstood his stand on various issues,” Nitish Kumar said.
By supporting Advani as prime ministerial candidate, Nitish Kumar, who is seen as a powerful leader of the JD-U in Bihar, has made it clear that other NDA partners would have no problem with Advani’s nomination.
The BJP has said that the party decision has the consent of BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has not been keeping well.