NEW DELHI: BJP has assured BIhar CM Nitish Kumar that it would decide on its prime ministerial candidate in consultation with NDA allies.

Party chief Nitin Gadkari gave this assurance to Kumar when he recently sought a guarantee from the saffron partner that the BJP would not project Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in the 2014 parliamentary polls.

According to sources, Kumar sought the specific assurance from Gadkari at a quiet meeting they had here on July 25.

Kumar had earlier stressed — in an interview with the Economic Times and while addressing a convention of party workers — the need for the NDA to project a “secular” person as the PM. His conversation with Gadkari over dinner marked the first instance when the JD(U) leader spelt out his opposition to Modi, potentially complicating BJP’s challenge of assuaging a crucial but restless ally without annoying the Gujarat strongman.

When contacted by TOI, Gadkari confirmed that the Bihar CM raised the leadership issue with him. “We had a good meeting in Delhi about a week ago. I told him that we have taken no decision yet on the leadership issue. it is too early for that. Whenever we take a decision, we will do so after consulting all the NDA partners,” the BJP chief said.

The meeting had been sought by the BJP against the backdrop of Kumar’s anxiety that the main Opposition may declare Modi to be its prime ministerial candidate. The Bihar CM plans to wean Muslims away from arch-rival Lalu Prasad, and has worked on the BJP to ensure that the Gujarat CM was not assigned campaign duty in any election in Bihar since 2005. However, with a section in the BJP keeping up a steady support for Modi as the PM candidate, the JD(U) leader worries that the momentum for the Gujarat CM may become irresistible if he scores his third straight win in Gujarat polls likely to be held in November.

Sources said that in the meeting, Kumar had insisted on an early decision on the leadership issue, and there are indications that he may press his demand again in view of the looming Gujarat polls as well as the projections that Modi is the odds on favourite this time as well.

Despite being a partner of the BJP since the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, Kumar prizes his “secular” credentials: something which in the last election hindered the effort of his rivals to get Muslims to vote against him. Estimates of the actual support that he got from the community diverge, but there is consensus that the BJP-JD(U) alliance does not evoke the same hostility that NDA would otherwise face.

The CM’s worry is that the entry of Modi into the fray would not only frustrate his effort to build upon the goodwill he has among Muslims, but would trigger a sharp polarization against him, distracting the attention from his development agenda and handing an advantage to Prasad, Congress and Ram Vilas Paswan.

