Even as the Janata Dal (United) kept the Bharatiya Janata Party on tenterhooks on the issue of Narendra Modi, the Congress on Thursday termed as “hypothetical” Nitish Kumar walking out of NDA and it aligning with his party.
The Congress also dismissed the idea of a Federal Front floated by leaders like Kumar, Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik.
Responding to a question on whether Congress will ally with Mr. Kumar’s party if it parted ways from BJP, party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said, “This is hypothetical. We are as of today in mood to go it all alone. What will happen in future, nobody knows.”
Appearing unimpressed by recent strain between BJP and JD (U), he quoted from Bollywood numbers to describe the relationship between the two allies as one of changing moods of a married woman who one day sings of going back to her parents’ home and the very next day vouching to live and die together.
“It is their internal matter. Today Nitish Kumar is with BJP. As long as any party is with BJP, there is no possibility of us going with them.
“There will not be any agreement in principle with a party as long as it is with the BJP,” he said citing the example of JMM in Jharkhand with whom Congress refused to have any truck till it was with BJP.
Though Mr. Ahmed did not indicate any willingness on the part of Congress to do business with JD (U), Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath had on Wednesday said that Congress was “open” to all secular parties.
“Any secular party can be an ally... We are open to all secular parties... now and in the future,” he had said.
A senior party leader speaking on condition of anonymity felt that the Nitish Kumar government will remain stable even if it walks out of the NDA as no party including Lalu Prasad’s RJD would like to vote in the Assembly with BJP to oust his government.
"Modi, Advani share same ideology"
Meanwhile, at the AICC briefing, Mr. Ahmed took potshots at Mr. Kumar for his reservations against Mr. Modi and compatibility with Mr. Advani saying the Gujarat Chief Minister was only a symptom of the disease of communalism fathered by Mr. Advani.
“Hailing from medical background, I understand that the treatment of symptoms are not effective and do not work in the long term. I am surprised that Nitish Kumar wants to remove the symptom but does not want to attack on the grass roots of the problem,” he said.
“We agree with Kumar’s contention that Modi is communal but disagree with his view that Advani is secular. We believe both Advani and Modi have the same ideology.”
