Patna: JD(U), which is opposed to Narendra Modi's projection as BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, today said it will discuss all aspects of his anointment as the campaign committee chief and will spell out its stand soon.
"We have seen the report and have taken cognisance of the meanings implied in it. We will discuss it in the party. We will come out with our stand on the issue after examining the entire situation and considering all the aspects in the party," Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told reporters here.
Kumar, who has time and again expressed his antipathy to Modi, refused to elaborate further on the issue, saying no more questions are required on this subject and advised reporters to keep their questions pending till JD(U) finalises its response on the matter.
He also denied reports in a section of media that BJP President Rajnath Singh had talked to him before the decision on Gujarat Chief Minister's anointment.
"There was no such conversation between me and Rajnath Singh. Such reports are baseless. I was in the Seva Yatra and no such talk could happen," he said.
Asked about JD(U) setting a deadline till November for BJP, Kumar said, "We will choose the timing." When repeatedly asked about the time-frame, he replied, "Soon."
JD(U) is the second largest constituent of the BJP-led NDA and has strong reservations about Modi. Party leaders have time and again expressed their antipathy to Modi and the Bihar Chief Minister has been the most vocal among them.
Kumar had even given a deadline till December this year to the BJP to declare its Prime Ministerial candidate, saying the candidate should be one, who is acceptable to all, which was interpreted by analysts as JD(U)'s No to Modi.
The JD(U) had yesterday termed Modi's anointment as campaign committee chief as the "internal matter" of BJP.
Kumar refused to react to BJP National General Secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy assertions immediately after the drubbing in Maharajganj bypoll that Modi was needed by JD(U) as much as the BJP.
"I need not give a reaction to every leader's comment," Kumar, who is a senior JD(U) leader and the NDA Chairman in Bihar, said.
Facing a barrage of questions from mediapersons, Kumar, said, "I have said everything I wanted so lets shift to some other subject."
Asked if he would set out on a 'Rajniti yatra' (political yatra) in the state soon, Kumar said he went on yatras every now and then. "At present I am busy with Sewa yatra and am going to Katihar tomorrow."
Anointment of Modi as BJP poll campaign committee chief seemed to have widened the cracks between JD(U) and BJP in Bihar where the two run a coalition government.
JD(U) and BJP have been ruling Bihar successfully under Kumar since 2005 and the NDA had bagged 34 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the 2009 Parliamentary polls.
On the insistence of Kumar, the BJP leadership had kept Modi away from Bihar in the last parliamentary elections as well the 2010 Assembly polls.
During BJP National Executive Committee meeting in Patna in 2010 when a photograph of Modi with Kumar appeared in newspapers, an agitated Bihar Chief Minister returned Rs 5 crore donated by Gujarat for the Kosi flood victim and even cancelled a dinner for BJP leaders.
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