New Delhi: The question whether Narendra Modi will campaign in the Bihar polls continues to pose a dilemma for the BJP, with a senior leader on Monday saying that the Gujarat Chief Minister will be part of the canvassing team but later retracted his statement.
"All stalwart leaders of the party will be part of the joint campaign for the Bihar Assembly polls," BJP vice President Muktar Abbas Naqvi told reporters here. Asked repeatedly if Modi would be part of the campaign he said, "Modi is one of our stalwart leaders. Definitely he will be part of the campaign".
However, a little later after the media briefing he retracted his remark on Modi and said no decision has been taken on who would be the leaders to campaign in the Bihar polls. "It is premature. The final decision (on campaigners) will be taken after consultations with leaders at the state and national level," he said.
A bitter row involving Modi and the Bihar Chief Minister had threatened the alliance when a miffed Nitish Kumar returned the relief fund cheque of Rs five crore for 2008 Kosi flood victims to Modi government in June this year.
Kumar had objected to advertisements that appeared in Bihar newspapers during the BJP national executive in Patna that featured him and Modi holding hands and spoke about the help given by Gujarat government to the flood victims. Naqvi evaded a direct reply when asked if BJP MP from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi would be be among the campaigners for Bihar polls and said, "any other question?".
To a query if seat sharing could be an issue for BJP-JD(U) in certain districts due to delimitation, Naqvi said that this was the first Assembly election after the delimitation process and he did not forsee any seat sharing issues. PTI
