Bihar NDA found itself on a bit of sticky wicket ahead of the Lok Sabha polls when Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar skipped Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s rallies in
Gaya and Purnea on Tuesday, triggering speculation whether the BJP wanted to avoid having both leaders on the same platform, in view of its recent experiences.
Incidentally, Purnia has a JDU candidate and Gaya has an NDA candidate in Hindustani Awam Morcha patron Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had lost against a JDU candidate Vijay Manjhi in 2019.
Sources claimed that the BJP was uncomfortable with Nitish raising the issue of Hindu-Muslim clashes during the previous LaluRabri regime in the presence of Prime Minister Modi.
“BJP is disturbed over Nitish's Hindu-Muslim overdrive in his address during election rallies. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, gives thrust to other issues, sources added.
In the last meeting in Nawada, Nitish had created a flutter in political circles by stating possibly in zest, unless it was a slip of tongue -that PM Modi would cross the 4000-seat threshold, a remark which constrained him to make amends by touching PM Modis feet on the dais.
Although leaders of both the BJP and the JD (U) tried to explain Nitish`s absence by citing CM's pressing official and political engagements, the RJD claimed that Nitish skipping the PMs rallies had only exposed the faultlines in the NDA.
