New Delhi:
The BJP has failed to resolve the deadlock within the party over the future of its alliance in Bihar with the Janata Dal (United).
Party President Nitin Gadkari has been asked to take a final call after a meeting late last night ended without any decision.
After the meeting, party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said that no decision was taken on the alliance that has lasted nearly 15 years.
"Nitin Gadkari will be in Nagpur on Wednesday and only after he comes back, the opinion of the state BJP will be put forward. Only after that there will be a decision on Bihar's JD(U)-BJP coalition. For now there is no decision on coalition," he said.
Shahnawaz also dismissed as "mere speculation" reports appearing in the media about the imminent breakdown in relations between the two NDA allies. He said BJP favoured continuance of the alliance with JD(U) for the development of Bihar but would not compromise on self-respect.
Nitin Gadkari held the meeting with the Core Group of the party's Bihar unit in New Delhi late on Tuesday night on ties with JD(U) which reached a brink after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar gave vent to his anger over an advertisement showing him holding hands with his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi.
(Pics: Nitish-Modi standoff in Bihar)The meeting, chaired by Gadkari, was attended by BJP spokespersons Ravi Shankar Prasad and Hussain, Thakur, party general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan, General secretary (Organisation) Ramlal, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Ashwini Choubey and Health Minister Nand Kishore Yadav.
Sources say the Bihar BJP unit voiced their resentment against Nitish Kumar and his autocratic ways, insisting that the party must not compromise with self respect. But senior members of the BJP reportedly wanted a truce. Troubleshooting was very much on the agenda. After all, the partnership with Nitish's JD(U) has brought them to power in Bihar, and allowed them to share credit with Nitish for making a marked difference in a state often referred to as India's heart of darkness.
(Read: After ad row, Nitish cancels dinner for BJP leaders)All except one, perhaps. Narendra Modi, the Gujarat Chief Minister, has become the crucial point of the conflict. And he wants his party to send Nitish a strong message, preferably one that includes some sort of defence for him, as Nitish rails home the point that Modi cannot campaign in Bihar because his non-secular image will alienate Muslim voters.
So the troubleshooting the BJP has to engage in at its meeting is multi-barreled. It had to soothe Modi and Bihar leaders who feel Nitish is dismissive of them; it had to calculate the risk of ending the alliance with Nitish so close to the Bihar elections; and it had to find a way to end the current hostility without letting it appear as if Nitish calls all the shots.
Those different dimensions were all carefully built into the statement of BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain, hours ahead of the party meeting. "The relation between BJP and JD(U) is very old and we want to continue this relationship." Followed quickly with the warning, "The BJP will not compromise on self-respect."
The JD(U) seemed more than willing to meet to meet the BJP half-way. Nitish recalled a police team deputed to Surat in Gujarat to investigate a series of ads that had irked him by highlighting Modi on his home turf - where his carefully-guarded secular image is making inroads into the Muslim vote.
The ads were part of an ill-devised marketing campaign launched by the BJP in Bihar last week to commemorate its National Executive meeting. One ad showed Kumar at a rally with Modi. Another highlighted the money donated by Gujarat to Bihar for relief and rehabilitation programs linked to floods in the Kosi region two years ago.
A furious Nitish declared his permission had not been sought for the ads. On Monday, he followed through on a threat to return Rs 5 crore donated by the Gujarat government for flood relief work. It was in poor taste, he said, to use a calamity to highlight Gujarat's generosity.
(Read: Latest in Modi-Nitish row: Bihar returns Gujarat's Kosi aid)As the spat became public and louder, it created a vertiginous shift in the understanding between Nitish and his Deputy Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP. At an official function on Monday, the two ignored each other. But by Tuesday evening, sources said Modi had agreed to join Nitish on a public tour whose billing as a Vishwas Yatra (trust tour) now carries new significance.
So will the marriage be saved? JD(U) President Sharad Yadav said, "An individual does not decide, a party decides. The party has decided that they want to stay with the coalition. Something happened on 12th June that created a rift, and both parties are making efforts to make amends." (With PTI inputs)