Patna:
The BJP has said that senior leader Narendra Modi was not referring to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar when he made controversial remarks about the impact of caste politics in Bihar.
Mr Kumar, not a fan of Mr Modi's at the best of times, had retorted that he does not need any lectures from the Gujarat chief minister, who he suggested, should evaluate his own impact on his state.
Mr Modi's remarks, made at a rally in Gujarat over the weekend, caused some uneasiness between the BJP and Mr Kumar's JD((U). The parties together form the government in Bihar.
The BJP's Sushil Modi, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, said that Mr Modi's criticism was aimed at former chief ministers of Bihar like Lalu Prasad Yadav and the BJP. "I have seen the CD of Modi's speech and his remarks are not aimed at the NDA government. The Gujarat Chief Minister made the remarks about caste politics apparently to warn some BJP leaders against playing out caste politics."
Speaking at a public rally in Rajkot yesterday, Mr Modi had reportedly said "that Bihar, at one point of time, was a political and spiritual leader of the country, but it slipped into socio-economical backwardness ever since the casteist leadership took centre stage."
The war between partners BJP and Janata Dal United JD (U) on Narendra Modi reached a flashpoint Mr Modi was not allowed to campaign in Bihar.
For much part of last year, the friction between the two CMs was palpable. At the core was Nitish's unwillingness to share the political stage with Mr Modi. Mr Kumar has carefully cultivated a secular image despite his party's long-standing association with the BJP, and he did not want Modi's less than secular image to affect that.