By IANS,
New Delhi: Miffed over Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar returning flood relief money to Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will Monday discuss the political situation in the eastern state.
“Our party president Nitin Gadkari and other senior leaders are not here in the capital. They are expected to reach Delhi tomorrow (Monday) and then the Bihar political developments will be discussed,” party spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said here Sunday.
The rift between Bihar’s ruling parties widened Sunday with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP boycotting a joint march in rural Patna and Nitish Kumar quickly hitting back by cancelling a similar event later in the day.
The BJP strongly protested Nitish Kumar’s decision to return the Rs.5 crore given by Gujarat for flood relief. The party made it clear that the JD-U leader’s behaviour was unacceptable.
On behalf of BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Hussain conveyed “a strong message” to JD-U president Sharad Yadav at the latter’s residence here, a senior party leader said.
“The BJP has sent a strong message to the JD-U. We cannot tolerate such behaviour of Nitish Kumar,” a senior BJP leader told IANS. Further details of the Hussain-Yadav meeting were not available.
Nitish Kumar was angry over advertisements featuring him and Narendra Modi and the latter’s reference to the aid provided by Gujarat.
BJP sources said they would not be intimidated by the Bihar chief minister although their party is the junior partner in the state government and assembly elections are due in October this year.
Meanwhile, Yadav reiterated that the alliance between the BJP and the JD-U would continue.
“All is well with the BJP-JD-U alliance,” he said.
“We fought the Rajya Sabha elections together. We will continue to face the challenges ahead,” Yadav added.