Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has come in the way of smooth ties between BJP and Janata Dal(U) in Bihar and it is now turn of Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP to repair the damage, as he spent an hour with JD(U) president Sharad Yadav at his residence here Wednesday morning to bury the hatchet.

Immediately after their meeting, Yadav stressed that there was no crisis in the Bihar government nor any kind of rift between the two alliance partners. "Gaadi theek patari par hai" and there was no need of convening the party's executive to discuss the “crisis” when there is no crisis, Yadav snapped back in reply to a question. Some 50 BJP and JD(U) leaders of Bihar in the capital also called on him to express their solidarity.

Confident that there is no more misunderstanding between the coalition partners after a late night meeting with Bihar leaders at his residence on Tuesday, BJP president Nitin Gadkari flew back to Nagpur on Wednesday for a book release in the evening and would be back here only on Thursday to take stock of consultations he ordered with Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

None in the BJP is, however, prepared to discuss the Congress charge that the façade of rift was deliberate to garner the Muslim votes that Nitish cannot get with the BJP's help but certainly influence them by playing up artificial differences just when the state is getting ready for the polls.

Naidu as messenger

Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu met Yadav to convey heart-burning of some party leaders from Bihar on Nitish Kumar returning a Rs 5 crore relief aid sent by the Gujarat government for the Koshi flood victims and assured him that the BJP leadership Tuesday night decided to close the chapter in consultation with the Bihar leaders to concentrate all energies of the coalition partners in the upcoming assembly elections.

No JD-U condition

The BJP leaders were also happy after clarification by both Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar that none of them had said that Modi and BJP MP Varun Gandhi better not campaign in Bihar in the upcoming elections. In any case, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told reporters here that the BJP is an independent party and will not accept any such conditions.

As regards Modi campaigning in Bihar or not, Javadekar said he is a "star campaigner" of the party and goes to campaign wherever invited. The party has yet to decide who all will be the campaigners and the list has to be provided in advance to the Election Commission, the party sources said, pointing out that the process starts only after the elections are announced.

Spoiler of solidarity show

A senior party leader said Modi is to be blamed for putting self-glorifying advertisements in Patna newspapers during the BJP's national executive early this month, provoking Nitish to react. He said Modi's misadventure ruined the very purpose of holding the executive in Patna as a solidarity show.

As for Nitish cancelling a dinner he was to host for the BJP executive members, the party sources said no formal invitation was received and hence where was the question of cancellation.

Javadekar emphatically ruled out the BJP and JD-U falling apart and contesting the assembly elections on their own, stressing that both will go to the polls with Nitish Kumar as the leader. He stressed that both BJP and JD-U are complementary to each other in doing good work in the past five years and it would be foolish on part of either to wash out the gains by parting company.

Any wrinkles in the relationship will be resolved soon with neither side putting any conditions on each other, he added.

No Naveen repeat

The BJP seniors anxiously watching the Bihar development are confident that Nitish will not break away from the BJP as he otherwise loses the chief ministership. Also, he cannot follow the footsteps of Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik who broke the alliance with the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and assembly elections, they say.

They point out that the BJP had no leader of stature in Orissa nor the main opposition Congress had any and hence Patnaik succeeded. The situation is totally different in Bihar. If Nitish blinks, Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan are waiting in the wing. Moreover, Sushil Modi is the BJP's top leader with stature, they added.