Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to campaign for the Bihar Assembly polls as his magic need not work at “every place”, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said today.
At the same time, Ms. Swaraj made it clear that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had not put any condition on the issue of Mr. Modi campaigning in the state.
She said that it would be better if the “old arrangement” continued under which Mr. Modi had not campaigned during the 2005 Bihar Assembly polls and the 2009 general elections.
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“Modi’s magic and charisma have worked in Gujarat ...but it is not necessary that everybody’s magic works at every place.
“In Bihar, the magic of Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi is at the work ... and we are confident of our victory for carrying forward development,” Ms. Swaraj told reporters here.
“Nitishji has put no condition before us whether or not Narendra Modi should campaign in Bihar. The decision who should or should not campaign in Bihar has been the sole discretion of BJP,” she said.
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On the recent statement of Chief Minister that the ideology of the JD(U) was different from that of BJP, she said, “If the ideology of both parties were similar, then both will have merged into one party.
“Kumar has been right in his stand that though the ideologies of the two parties are different, we have worked together keeping in view the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) for governance and delivered the goods,” she said.
Ms. Swaraj said the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar represented an example of ’gatbandhan dharma’ (coalition politics).
She said that the Congress’ charge that Gujarat was ‘a laboratory of RSS’ was one out of frustration.
“The Congress has faced a complete rout in elections to urban and rural bodies in Bihar and, therefore, is making baseless allegations,” Ms. Swaraj said.