JD-U to go alone in Gujarat polls

The Janata Dal-United will fight the Gujarat assembly polls alone. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday he will campaign for his party in the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections, due in December.

"I will campaign in the Gujarat assembly elections," Kumar told mediapersons in Patna on Monday.

However, Kumar added that there was no need to give more importance to it. "I was invited from different places for campaigning in elections," he said.

The Bihar chief minister refused to say anything when asked about whether he will campaign against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Kumar's Janata Dal-United is a major ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party led-National Democratic Alliance.

Earlier, K C Tyagi, senior JD-U leader and party incharge of Gujarat, said that Nitish Kumar along with party president Sharad Yadav will campaign in the Gujarat polls.

JD-U spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told rediff.com that this is not first time the party has gone alone. Even in 2007, the JD-U contested the Gujarat assembly polls alone, he pointed out.

JD-U MP Shivanand Tiwari, another vocal critic of Modi, said that JD-U has no alliance with the BJP in Gujarat. According to JD-U leaders in Patna, the party will contest in 35 to 40 assembly seats in Gujarat.

Nitish Kumar had targeted Modi a few months ago when he suggested that the National Democratic Alliance should declare its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar had pointed out that the NDA had projected a prime ministerial candidate in every election since 1996. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the NDA's prime ministerial nominee in 1996 and 1998.

Kumar, without naming Modi, repeatedly said he and his party will only support a "secular candidate" for the PM's post.

This statement was seen as an attack against Modi, who has battled accusations about his alleged complicity in the Gujarat communal riots in 2002.