New Delhi:
BJP president Rajnath Singh candidly admitted on the NDTV Indian of the Year 2012 stage today that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's anti-Modi speech has caused a "crisis" with key ally Janata Dal (United). But he also said that it "can be resolved."
"We have an alliance on issues. We have a common minimum programme," Mr Singh said, adding that he had spoken to Mr Kumar, who used a party platform on Sunday to tell the BJP, without naming anyone, that Narendra Modi was not acceptable to his party, the JD(U), as the alliance's candidate for Prime Minister in next year's election.
The JD(U) has also asked the BJP to name its presumptive PM by December. Mr Singh said today that the BJP's parliamentary board, a panel of the party's top decision makers that Mr Modi was appointed to recently, would decide on whether the BJP would meet its ally's deadline or not.
"The central parliamentary board will decide on when to announce a PM candidate and whether to announce it or not. The BJP president has to honour the system that exists within the party," Mr Singh said.
His party colleague Sushma Swaraj said the BJP was under no pressure to announce its candidate for PM.
The BJP and JD(U) have been partners in Bihar and at the national level for years now. This morning, Mr Singh sought to de-escalate hostilities between the two parties, provoked by Mr Kumar's baiting of Mr Modi, when he met angry BJP leaders from Bihar.
Mr Modi is the top choice of BJP cadres to lead the party in the next general elections. The JD(U) says the taint of the 2002 Gujarat communal riots under his watch, in which over a 1000 Muslims were killed, rules him out.
"We have an alliance on issues. We have a common minimum programme," Mr Singh said, adding that he had spoken to Mr Kumar, who used a party platform on Sunday to tell the BJP, without naming anyone, that Narendra Modi was not acceptable to his party, the JD(U), as the alliance's candidate for Prime Minister in next year's election.
The JD(U) has also asked the BJP to name its presumptive PM by December. Mr Singh said today that the BJP's parliamentary board, a panel of the party's top decision makers that Mr Modi was appointed to recently, would decide on whether the BJP would meet its ally's deadline or not.
"The central parliamentary board will decide on when to announce a PM candidate and whether to announce it or not. The BJP president has to honour the system that exists within the party," Mr Singh said.
His party colleague Sushma Swaraj said the BJP was under no pressure to announce its candidate for PM.
The BJP and JD(U) have been partners in Bihar and at the national level for years now. This morning, Mr Singh sought to de-escalate hostilities between the two parties, provoked by Mr Kumar's baiting of Mr Modi, when he met angry BJP leaders from Bihar.
Mr Modi is the top choice of BJP cadres to lead the party in the next general elections. The JD(U) says the taint of the 2002 Gujarat communal riots under his watch, in which over a 1000 Muslims were killed, rules him out.
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