New Delhi: Reflecting widening rift with JD(U), BJP on Monday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was "nobody" to give a certificate on secularism to his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi and pointed out that he has remained a part of NDA even after the 2002 Godhra incident. The resentment in BJP over Kumar's scathing attack on Modi on Sunday was visible with several leaders feeling the Bihar CM had "almost...
07:16 PM, Apr 15, 2013
New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has raked up the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate debate again with a statement clearly backing party leader LK Advani. "There is no doubting the fact that LK Advani is our tallest leader," Chouhan said in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN. Chouhan's statement comes hours after Yashwant Sinha spoke out in support of Advani as the Prime Ministerial candidate. Sinha had said...
06:20 PM, Apr 15, 2013
New Delhi: Most Chief Ministers on Monday chose to miss a high-level conference, convened to thrash out challenging issues on public order and policing, with only seven state leaders attending it. The conference of Chief Ministers, convened by the Home Ministry, saw attendance of only Chief Ministers of Odisha (Naveen Patnaik), Assam (Tarun Gogoi), Uttarakhand (Vijay Bahuguna), Tripura (Manik Sarkar), Arunachal Pradesh (Nabam Tuki), Meghalaya (Mukul Sangma) and Nagaland (Neiphiu...
03:00 PM, Apr 15, 2013
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha has vouched for senior party leader LK Advani to be the Prime Ministerial candidate. He said if Advani is available to be the PM candidate, it will end the debate on NDA's PM nominee. "Advaniji is the senior-most, most respected leader and if he is available to lead the party and government, then that should end all discussion. Everyone should fall in...
01:42 PM, Apr 15, 2013
New Delhi: Are the ties between the Janata Dal United and the Bharatiya Janata Party reaching breaking point over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate? Senior leaders from Bihar will meet party chief Rajnath Singh on April 18 in Delhi. The Bihar BJP leaders say Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's veiled threat over Narendra Modi is not acceptable. "The Chief Minister's attack on Narendra Modi is against...
11:22 AM, Apr 15, 2013
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is scrambling to tackle Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's ultimatum on its Prime Ministerial candidate. The Bihar BJP core group will meet party chief Rajnath Singh on April 18 in Delhi. The BJP will discuss Nitish's ultimatum on keeping out Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from the PM race. Top state leaders of the BJP will join the meeting, including Sushil Modi, Mangal Pandey,...
09:55 AM, Apr 15, 2013
New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) drama played out on Sunday with the Janata Dal United (JDU) giving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a year-end deadline to declare its Prime Ministerial candidate. By Sunday evening, the BJP hit back saying that the key NDA ally should rather focus on targeting the UPA than its own allies. Hoping to gain some advantage of this BJP-JD(U) squabble, the Bihar Congress tried...
07:52 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Patna: Describing senior JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's posturing as 'charade,' LJP supremo Ramvilas Paswan on Sunday claimed that Kumar would never sever ties with the BJP for the sake of power in the state. "Nitish will never sever ties with the BJP on Modi issue or any other matter not only in this life, but in the next seven lives," Paswan told reporters. Kumar's posturing on...
03:10 AM, Apr 15, 2013
New Delhi: In the backdrop of NDA ally JD(U)'s attack on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Rajnath Singh on Sunday said relationship with coalition partners will "remain good". "Our relationships with all the coalition partners were good, are good and will remain good," he told reporters in Delhi without elaborating when asked about his reaction to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's criticism of Modi. Singh was speaking on...
02:00 AM, Apr 15, 2013
Mumbai: National Democratic Alliance partner Shiv Sena said on Sunday it is not averse to any name being projected as BJP Prime Ministerial candidate, as long as all alliance partners are consulted before announcing it. The Sena's statement comes immediately after a veiled threat by Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar against projecting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate. "All parties in...
11:40 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Congress on Sunday said other NDA partners need to take cue from JD(U) which has insisted on a Prime Ministerial candidate having a "secular credibility beyond doubt". Clearly in the glee over the JD(U) resolution which is seen as a veto against Narendra Modi's possible candidature for the PM's post, senior Congress leader and I&B Minister Manish said, "Today these voices have started emanating from within the NDA....
07:55 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: After a stern warning from the Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) prime ministerial candidate, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at its biggest ally saying it should refrain from targeting its allies and instead focus on removing the "corrupt" United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Nitish had, in a veiled threat to the BJP, made it clear that...
07:15 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: The Janata Dal (United) has set the terms for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), giving out a stern message on the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) prime ministerial nominee. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not name the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but made it very clear he is not acceptable as a PM candidate. The JD(U) has set a deadline till the end of the year to...
05:39 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Speaking at the JD(U) National Executive Meeting in the Capital on Sunday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, without directly naming Narendra Modi, made it clear to the BJP that Modi's nomination for the Prime Minister's post will not be acceptable to him. At the same time, diffusing all speculation about his own Prime Ministerial ambitions, Nitish said that he did not harbour any such dreams. Nitish said that,...
03:43 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday set clear terms for future alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), giving enough hints that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will not be acceptable as the prime ministerial candidate to the JD(U). Nitish praised the virtues of senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee thrice in his speech, saying Vajpayee's 'Raj Dharma' was the way forward. Nitish said, "Under Vaypayee's leadership,...
03:15 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: The Janata Dal (United) on Sunday said its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was very old and it did not want to break the partnership. "Our alliance with the BJP is very old and we don't want to break it. We want to continue this alliance. Difference between the BJP and JD(U) is being projected by the media," said party president Sharad Yadav at the two-day...
03:02 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday took a dig at his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, who has been espousing his model of development as a possible answer to India's ills. The Janata Dal-United leader also told a party meeting in Delhi that his party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can continue only if "some fundamental issues" were made clear. In an obvious criticism of Modi,...
02:35 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Reiterating his party's demand for a secular prime ministerial candidate, Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said while his party doesn't want to leave NDA, it was not ready to compromise on secularism. "We won't compromise on secularism to stay in power. The secularism mentioned in our Constitution is essential for national development," he said while speaking at JD(U)'s National Executive Meeting....
01:59 PM, Apr 14, 2013
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday met BJP chief Rajnath Singh at his residence where the two leaders were understood to have held consultations on NDA's strategy ahead of Lok Sabha polls. Nitish is in the capital to attend the two-day national executive and council meeting of JD(U) that began on Saturday in which a number of state chiefs of his party complained of being ignored and...
11:25 PM, Apr 13, 2013
New Delhi: With no other contender in race, Sharad Yadav is all set to be President of JD(U) for a third consecutive time on Sunday. He was the only one to have filed the nomination for the post and Saturday was the last day for withdrawal of nomination. The decision will be announced at the party's national council meet on Sunday. Sharad Yadav's name was proposed from around 20 state...
10:49 PM, Apr 13, 2013
