Patna,(BiharTimes): Three years after firing the first salvo on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and cancelling the dinner hosted in honour of the BJP bigwigs Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said that the BJP-Janata Dal (United) rift is just the creation of media.

Addresing a function organized to mark the anniversary of Veer Kuer Singh’s victory over British at S K Memorial Hall in Patna on Tuesday he said that he had always praised the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government (in which he himself was a minister). 

Incidentally, a day earlier the BJP organized a similar function in which party general secretary, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, without taking the name of Janata Dal (United) criticized the regional parties for dictating terms to national parties having a far bigger vote share.

He termed unfortunate the recent tendency of regional parties with barely 1.2 to two per cent vote share to dictate terms to the BJP, which had over 22 per cent of the share. 

Nitish chose the occasion to hit back with the same ferocity by stating that he would not compromise on certain basic principles enunciated at the JD(U)’s national executive in New Delhi.

The chief minister said it is not important whether “we are a regional party or how many vote share we have at the national level. What is important is the political vision and philosophy we pursue.”

Nitish said he had not said anything objectionable at his party’s national executive meet and added that he praised Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s way of governing the nation. The CM stressed on how the JD(U)-BJP alliance is working on the idea of mutual respect.

He reitered that his party would not compromise on the issue of secularism and growth with justice. Thus in a way he made it clear that Modi’s candidature is not acceptable to him.

Among those present on the occasion were the state party chief, Vashistha Narayan Singh, MPs Meena Singh and Putul Singh, agriculture minister Narendra Singh, MLAs Neeraj Kumar, Jaikumar Singh and Sanjay Singh and other leaders of Rajput caste.