Nitish,dy back on vishwas track

Sources in the BJP,however,said in Delhi that Modi and Varun Gandhi were not likely to campaign in the Assembly elections. But it was important for the BJP to maintain its public stand that JD(U)’s condition that Narendra Modi and Varun should not hit the campaign trail were unacceptable to it.

There were also signs of Nitish responding to BJP’s softening of stand as he and his deputy praised each other for good governance during Friday’s Vishwas Yatra to Madanpur in Aurangabad. In his address,Nitish repeatedly referred to “hamari sarkar (our government)” while enumerating the coalition government’s achievements.

While BJP’s national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told The Indian Express that talks had been on between top BJP and JD(U) leadership,Thakur was more forthright in accepting that BJP leaders had been discussing seat-sharing with JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav. “We are surely discussing seat-sharing and even swapping of Assembly seats with the JD(U),” said Thakur,adding that the Narendra Modi issue did not come up during the discussions.

Shahnawaz said the party’s high-powered Parliamentary Board member M Venkaiah Naidu had categorically stated that the JD(U) had not put any precondition for talks with the BJP. Nitish,desperately trying to create a Muslim constituency for the JD(U) with welfare and education schemes,had reportedly asked the BJP to swap some Muslim and EBC-dominated seats with his party. In 2009 Lok Sabha elections,the BJP had to concede Kishanganj seat to the JD(U),which it lost to the Congress.

Hussain said the “cloud of misgivings will be soon cleared” even as he accepted that Nitish had been very much a star campaigner for the NDA. He,however,promptly added that the BJP too had many star campaigners.

Asked if Sushil Modi resuming Vishwas Yatra with Nitish was a compromise on the part of the BJP,Hussain said the party central leadership “would never interfere with state government’s functioning”. (With ENS Delhi)