Citing his failure to check the post-Godhra riots, NDA constituent Janata Dal (United) today made clear its opposition to Narendra Modi's projection as Prime Ministerial candidate but ruled out the possibility of aligning with "enemy" Congress at the cost of "friend" BJP.
Taking stock of the political scenario in the country against the growing clamour in the BJP for pitting Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate, the JD(U) executive, which met here, criticised the chief minister saying that he "failed in discharging his duties as the head of the state to check communal riots in Gujarat in 2002".
While JD(U) leaders have made public statements expressing their antipathy to Modi, this is the first time the party has made its position formally clear through a conclave -- the National Executive meeting.
Amid speculation over Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also being in the Prime Ministerial race, party spokesperson K C Tyagi said emphatically said thrice, "Nitish Kumar is not a PM candidate."
While making it clear that it was opposed to Modi's projection as the Prime Ministerial candidate, JD(U), however, said it will not set any deadline for the BJP to decide on who would be its Prime Ministerial face.
Responding to a volley of questions on whether JD-U will oppose Modi's projection in the BJP for the top job, Tyagi said, "As long as the Parliamentary Board of the BJP does not categorically say who is its Prime Ministerial candidate, why should we talk about it."
But in an apparent scaling down of its rhetoric, the party dismissed contentions of fixing any timeline for BJP to declare its Prime Ministerial candidate before next Lok Sabha elections but felt "it will be good" if the major ally in the NDA chose to do it as "they had done it
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