Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate should be one with secular credentials — a clear message that he was not in favour of the alliance choosing Narendra Modi as its nominee The BJP said the party did not need a certificate on secularism from anyone RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat hit out at Nitish. He said Hinduism was “all-inclusive” and that there was no reason why a “Hinduwadi” should not be prime minister Shivanand Tiwari, JD(U) general secretary, said NDA cannot come to power with a fanatic face. He said AB Vajpayee wanted to sack Modi Party says Atal wanted to sack Narendra Modi after 2002; Nitish willing to walk out of coalition if BJP opts for Guj CM as its candidate for PM The gloves are off. The JD(U) has warned the BJP that it would march out of the coalition the moment the party thought of projecting Gujarat chief minister (CM) Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. A day after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar insisted that the BJP should choose a secular face to lead the party in the 2014 polls, there was further deterioration in the relations between the two parties, which are together ruling Bihar at present. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday defended both Modi and Hindutva. Addressing RSS volunteers in Latur, Bhagwat said: “Nitish Kumar has said that the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections should be secular. He has made the statement so that his vote bank remains intact.” His comments have deepened the divide between the two warring NDA constituents with Nitish’s confidante and JD(U) spokesperson Shivanand Tewari emphasising that former prime minister AB Vajpayee wanted to sack Modi after the post- Godhra riots in 2002. The bitter acrimony affected the coalition discussions on the presidential nominee. BJP leaders have kept quiet as they do not want to add fuel to the fire. It is clear that the NDA is struggling to give a coherent shape to its quest for a presidential candidate. Already, the Shiv Sena has jilted its partner, saying its decision to vote for UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee does not, in any way, reflect larger incompatibility issues. The belligerent JD(U) has been reluctant to vote for any nominee and has been demanding consensus on Mukherjee. The BJP believes it is being thwarted in its efforts to reach out to probable allies, the Biju Janata Dal and the AIADMK. The focus has now shifted on who the BJP’s prime ministerial nominee would be after Nitish spoke out in an interview to a newspaper. The BJP has been hoping to postpone making such an announcement because the party understands the difficulty of going with Modi at this stage. That will definitely alienate the anti-Modi middle rung in the party and the BJP hierarchy will be in utter disarray. The party plans to approach the 2014 polls under the dual leadership of Nitin Gadkari and Modi and will not want to precipitate a crisis by projecting anybody as its prime minister at the moment. Bhagwat’s meeting was out of bounds for the media, but according to those present, the RSS chief stressed that Hinduism was “all-inclusive”. He even said that there was no reason why a “Hinduwadi” should not be prime minister. He was quoted as having said: “Hinduism is a broad philosophy which propagates humanism.” He also said that it was accommodative of different points of view. It was obvious that Bhagwat was backing Modi. Nitish’s outburst on Tuesday was waiting to happen. The recent rise of Modi and the party’s abject surrender to him by having the Gujarat CM’s bête noire Sanjay Joshi removed had been witnessed by the likes of Nitish with a degree of discomfiture. It has taken time for Nitish to wean away the Muslim support from a secular leader like Lalu Prasad Yadav. He does not want to give up the advantage which he enjoys in Bihar after a tremendous electoral effort.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Rajasthan Gulabchand Kataria
was questioned by Central Bureau of investigation (CBi) officer Sandeep tamgadge at
the CBi-Sit (Special investigation team) office in Old Sachivalay, Gandhinagar, for
several hours on thursday in connection with the tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case.
the CBi will be submitting its final report in the case on June 30.
Kataria was earlier questioned by the CBi in connection with the Sohrabuddin
fake encounter case. “His questioning started around 3 pm on thursday and continued
till late evening,” a CBi source confirmed. He was summoned to appear before the CBi
in connection with the tulsi encounter case as the investigating agency believes both
the Sohrabuddin and tulsi encounters are linked.
according to CBi sources, Kataria, who was home minister in the Rajasthan
government in 2005, was allegedly approached by the influential marble lobby of
Udaipur to eliminate Sohrabuddin Shaikh.
While Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter in 2005, his close aide tulsi
was killed in 2006. the CBi had arrested 17 people, including 14 police officials, in the
Sohrab encounter, but it did not arrest anyone in the tulsi case. Kataria’s subordinate and
then state BJP pres ident Om Mathur too has been questioned in the Sohrab encounter
case earlier.
Sources close to the development told DNa Kataria had an important role to play
when the conspiracy to eliminate Sohrab was hatched by the accused in the case.
“Kataria can also provide the missing link that connects the two encounters,”
said a source familiar with the development. Sohrab, tulsi and azam Khan, another
Sohrab aide, formed a gang in Udaipur in 2003-04 to extort money from marble
traders. in December 2004, they killed gangster Hameed Lala who was reportedly close
to one of the most prominent marble traders.