BJP brass looks to save face in Bihar

NEW DELHI: Faced with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's ultimatum to keep Narendra Modi and Varun Gandhi off the campaign for Bihar, BJP leadership was on Tuesday groping for ways to keep the Bihar alliance going without appearing to have sacrificed the Gujarat chief minister at the altar of political expediency.

A majority in the Bihar unit of the party as well as a significant section of the central leadership favour continued partnership with the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U). But they can accept the demand only at the cost of a huge loss of face and wrath of Narendra Modi who is learnt to be already upset with those willing to accommodate the Bihar chief minister's reservations about him.

Silent acquiescence by the saffron camp with Nitish Kumar's conditionality will not serve the latter's purpose of ringfencing himself against Modi and his brand of Hindutva. That has added to the task of those engaged in the conflict resolution task.

The problem dominated the discussion JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav had with the deputy chief minister of Bihar, Sushil Modi, and the party general secretary Ravishankar Prasad. Sushil Modi, the only BJP leader with a pan-Bihar recognition who also has a rapport with RSS, is a staunch advocate of continued partnership with JD(U). But he as well as others keen to avoid a split with JD(U) don't seem to have a clear understanding about how to get around the issue -- Nitish Kumar's resolve to woo sections of Muslims by running a campaign bereft of Hindutva.

After two days of tension, there were signs of de-escalation. BJP ministers turned up for the meeting of the Bihar cabinet on Tuesday, and there were indications that Sushil Modi may accompany Nitish Kumar for his Viswas Yatra on Friday.

But with the fundamental issue unresolved, the risk of a fresh eruption remained. There was considerable anger in the BJP when a team of Bihar police reached Surat to investigate the source of advertisements taken out in Bihar dailies as part of a PR build up for Narendra Modi.

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari was holding meetings with leaders of the Bihar unit to find a way out of the impasse.

Any BJP attempt for rapprochement has to contend with Narendra Modi's clout. Many of the party leaders were taken aback by the propaganda offensive that was unleashed for him in Bihar to coincide with the meeting of the national executive, and which conflicted with the unwritten pact with the JD(U) to keep Hindutva and its aggressive proponents on the backburner in Bihar.

The reservations, however, are unlikely to find expression now that Nitish Kumar has made an issue of Modi's aggressive foray into Bihar. Besides the fact that Modi has powerful backers as well as goodwill among cadre, few of his colleagues can afford to be party to a script designed to appease a "secular" partners and humiliate the Hindutva strongman.

Nitish Kumar has his own reasons why he cannot drop the ante now. He is livid with the 'intrusion' of Modi, suspecting that it was meant to sabotage his outreach to Muslims. Having ventured so far against Hindutva warriors, he can backpedal only by giving more ammo to adversaries who have dismissed his ultimatum to BJP as a gimmick.

The two sides were set to bicker in any case over the seat sharing, with JD(U) leadership set to demand more seats and BJP equally determined to oppose it. The Modi issue has added to the toughness of the task.