NDA Splits as JD-U Leaves, BJP Hits Back At Nitish

Patna: Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) ended its 17-year-old alliance with the BJP after days of simmering tensions, marking a major split in the country's main opposition grouping.

In a bitter end to weeks of feuding, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told Governor D.Y. Patil to sack all the 11 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers in his government for not working and vowed to prove his majority in the assembly.

Simultaneously, JD-U president Sharad Yadav announced he was quitting as convenor of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"We are not responsible for ending the alliance. We are pushed to this situation so as not to compromise with our basic principles," Nitish Kumar said here. "We don't care for the repercussions, we are not worried."

The JD-U, one of the oldest allies of the BJP, is the 14th party to desert the NDA, which was born in 1998 and ruled India for six years under the leadership of the now ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"The JD-U is formally out of NDA and we have ended our alliance with the BJP," Yadav told a press conference also attended by Nitish Kumar.

Both stated they would not dilute the party's "basic principles" -- a political euphemism to mean they would never accept a BJP seemingly led by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The JD-U's departure forced BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi to demand Nitish Kumar's resignation while Sushma Swaraj called the divorce "sad and unfortunate".

The fissures between the BJP and JD-U were triggered by Nitish Kumar's opposition to Narendra Modi and the BJP decision to make the Gujarat strongman its public face in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

“We were forced to end our alliance with the BJP in view of some latest development that put us in a difficult situation and so as not to compromise with our basic principles,” Yadav said.

He sought to draw a line between a Modi-driven BJP and BJP stars Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, pointing out that the JD-U alliance with the NDA was based on a national agenda forged during the Vajpayee-Advani era.

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