Bihar BJP hails Modi on Nitish's big day

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday issued a veiled threat that no government could be formed at the Centre in 2014 without his support. But, the state BJP workers soon hit back with a big show of support for his bete-noire and Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, who came to Patna to pay homage to veteran BJP leader Kailashpati Mishra.

Incidentally, Nitish had convened “Adhikar” rally on Sunday, the first of its kind. But on a day when lakhs of people thronged the state capital to attend the JD (U) rally, all the top brass of the BJP, including LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi descended on Patna to pay homage to the departed BJP leader who passed away on Friday.

Slogans like “Desh ka Pradhan-mantri kaisa ho, Narendra Modi jaisa ho” rent the air, even though the sombre occasion was meant to pay tributes to Mishra. The BJP leaders left no stone unturned to send Nitish a strong signal that the more he opposes Modi for Prime Minister candidate, the more he (Modi) was racing ahead.

So, while Nitish gave a clarion call to his followers to be ready for a rally in New Delhi in March next year in case the Centre did not give special status to Bihar, the BJP said it was least interested in his oft-repeated demand.

The rally, which Nitish termed as “historic,” was organised at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on Sunday as it was this day in 1974 when Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) was lathi-charged while protesting Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s ‘excesses’. “This was the day when JP was lathi-charged, an action which was the last nail in the coffin of the then Congress government,” said Nitish about his mentor.

Slamming the Prime Minister for not giving time to the delegation which wanted to meet him with the demand for special status, Nitish said the country cannot grow if Bihar remained backward.