Advani calls Sharad, Nitish for talks to sort out BJP-JD(U) ties

NEW DELHI, MAY 23 : Taking the initiative to put the BJP ties with JD(U) back on the rails, NDA prime ministerial candidate L K Advani has invited party allies Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar for talks on May 25. BJP president Rajnath Singh has also been invited. The talks, according to highly-placed sources, would be held at Advani’s Prithviraj Road residence.

The relations between the two NDA partners have been of late passing through a rough patch. To start with, it was the poaching of JD(U) leaders by the BJP in Karnataka, particularly of S R Bommai’s son Basvaraj Bommai, which triggered a boycott of floor co-ordination meetings by the JD(U) held during the Budget session of Parliament. The JD(U) grouse was that the BJP was out to finish it in various states by engineering defections from its ranks.

Though Advani tried to undo the damage by undertaking to prevent any poaching in future, the BJP refusal to accommodate JD(U) seat claims for a tie-up during Karnataka Assembly polls only made the things worse.

“The BJP has torn alliance norms to shreds,” JD(U) president Sharad Yadav exclaimed in frustration and retaliated by fielding over 70 candidates for the 224-member Assembly.

In the midst of this has developed the Bihar crisis, which, if unresolved, has the potential to redefine political alignments in the state. At one level, both JD(U) and BJP are facing internal convulsions following a reshuffle of the council of ministers by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last month.

A revolt is simmering within the JD(U) with 22 of its 88 MLAs involved in dissidence. The problem in the BJP is far more serious with some three dozen of the 55 MLAs seeking removal of Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi as leader of the party’s legislature group and refusing to settle down for anything short of this.

Their charge: he is a puppet in Nitish’s hands. Therefore, he is being dubbed unfit to effectively protect the BJP interests in the Government.

Taking up cudgels on behalf of the anti-Modi elements, veteran party leader Kailashpati Mishra has submitted a proposal to the party high command to pull out of the Bihar Government and lend outside support to Nitish. This, according to him, is the best way to save the party. Nitish is said to be having a grand ambition to dispense with the BJP in future and be on his own through a different social alliance...

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.

Mail this page