New Delhi, June 23 (IBNS): Janata Dal (United) supremo Sharad Yadav on Saturday said there is no rift within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and that it will remain united.
His remarks came at a time when the JD(U) leaders and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) exchanged barbs over numerous issues.
The JD(U) on June 21 announced it will support United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential election while the BJP said it will back former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma for the titular post.
"The support of the JD(U) to UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee is no indication of any rift in the NDA. It is united and will remain so," Yadav told reporters on Saturday.
To avoid miscommunication, Yadav said he will ask his partymen to make comments only after speaking to him.
"I will like to tell them (party leaders) not to make comments on any issue without asking me. If the matter is about Bihar, then leaders should only comment after asking Nitish Kumar," Yadav said.
Pertinently, the JD(U) is a key ally of the BJP led NDA.
JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari earlier said that the BJP should think again over its stand on supporting Sangma.
He said that the economic condition of the country would not have been 'different' even if senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad was the Finance Minister of the nation.
Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar earlier this week slammed Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP leader Narendra Modi and said he did not perform 'Raj Dharma' during the riots in Gujarat in 2002.
Kumar said Modi 'mishandled' the Gujarat riots and that resulted in the loss of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Lok Sabha polls in 2004.
"Modi's mishandling of Gujarat riots made NDA lose its power in 2004," said Kumar.
He said former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not happy with Modi and the manner in which he handled the Gujarat riots.
He said Vajpayee wanted to remove Modi from the Chief Minister's post after the riots.
Kumar on June 19 created a new embarrassment for the BJP as he said the BJP must name their Prime Ministerial candidate for 2014.
His move seemed to be aimed at the growing influence of Modi with whom he exchanged several barbs in the past.
In an interview to The Economic Times, Kumar said the voters must know who the BJP is selecting in the general elections in 2014 as the PM candidate.
"The leader of the coalition should have secular credentials and liberal frame of mind," he said, reminding of Modi's image after the 2002 Gujarati riots in which the Muslims were killed.
"It should be someone who has absolute faith in democratic values. In a multi-religious and multi-lingual country like ours, the leader should not have rough edges in his personality," he told the financial daily.
Kumar and Modi have exchanged barbs over numerous issues in recent times.
Kumar on June 11 criticised Modi for saying that caste-based politics has ruined Bihar and said he should first look into the condition of his own state.
"Bihar was an excellent state but caste politics destroyed it," Modi had earlier said.
