'BJP's move to form govt with Pawar was misadventure'

Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said on Friday that the BJP's move to form government in Maharashtra with the support of Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar was a "misadventure".

He said the BJP might have had a "misplaced faith" on Ajit Pawar for getting the numbers to form a government and "so this has happened".

"It was a misadventure. Rather I will say a miscalculation," the BJP leader said at the 'India Today Conclave East' here.

In the last week of November, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra for the second time with the help of Ajit Pawar, who broke away from the NCP along with some party MLAs.

However, failing to gather the numbers for proving majority, Fadnavis had to resign, even as Ajit Pawar patched up with his uncle and went back to the NCP fold.

Ruling out possibilities of a break in ties with Nitish Kumar's JD(U) in Bihar as had happened between the BJP and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Modi said the two parties are working for the development of the state. "There is no difference on the issue of development of Bihar."

He said that the ties between the JD(U) and the BJP in Bihar have become stronger after the two parties fell apart in 2013.

"Though state elections in Bihar are far away, we will fight the polls projecting Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial face," Modi said.

He said seats between the two parties will be shared amicably without any bitterness which "we have been doing for the last so many years".