Bihar BJP chief says will invite Modi for rally in state

Two days after he said the party was preparing to contest all Lok Sabha seats in 2014 polls, Bihar BJP state president C P Thakur on Friday seemed to mount further pressure on senior alliance partner JD-U by saying that BJP would invite Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to address the party's rally early next year.

The Gujarat CM, who was "not invited to campaign" in any of election rallies since 2005, had addressed only one public meeting in Patna in 2010 after BJP's national executive. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had then opted out of sharing the dais with him.

Thakur said: "Just as we will invite our top BJP leaders to our rally, we will invite Narendra Modi, who is surely among our big leaders." Thakur was speaking on the party's proposed "hunkaar rally ", slated for March next year to attack Centre for its "step-motherly" attitude towards Bihar.

The BJP rally is being seen as the party's response to Nitish's Adhikar Yatra demanding special category status for the state from Centre.

Asked about the Bihar Chief Minister's reservations about Narendra Modi's presence in Bihar, Thakur said the latter was a BJP leader and "nobody should have any problem" with him visiting the state to take part in party function.

Thakur has, of late, launched an offensive against the JD-U, particularly after Nitish, for not did mentioning BJP or NDA during his ongoing Adhikar Yatra. Sources said the Central leadership has asked Bihar leaders to be "aggressive" against senior ally JD-U in its posturing for next Lok Sabha elections.

"It is an internal matter of BJP and we have nothing to say," JD-U national president Sharad Yadav said, while trying to downplay the statement.

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