Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar sought to downplay the rift with alliance partner BJP over the return of flood relief money to Gujarat on Monday, saying there was no cause of tension."Tension mat lijiye, relax kijiye," Kumar told reporters here before leaving for his Biswas Yatra in Nalanda district.
He was asked about suggestions by BJP leaders that he should reconsider his decision on returning Rs five crore for the Kosi flood relief to the Gujarat government or spell out his strategy on whether he wanted to continue the alliance with the saffron party.
Earlier, Kumar and his deputy and senior BJP leader, Sushil Kumar Modi were seen talking with each other at the swearing-in ceremony of the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court Rekha Manoharlal Doshit at the Raj Bhavan.Modi had yesterday decided to stay away from the Biswas Yatra at Paliganj.
State minister and NDA Convenor Nand Kishore Yadav, who represents the Patna City constituency, had also pulled out from the Chief Minister's 'Biswas Yatra' yesterday.
In the meanwhile, the BJP said on Monday said its alliance with the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) will be "intact" despite differences with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. "We are meeting today (Monday) to sort out the issues with the JD-U and not to aggravate it. Our alliance with the JD-U would be intact," party spokesman Ramnath Kovind told IANS here.
He said the JD-U-BJP government in Bihar had carried out a lot of development work over the past five years and the party would not like to break the alliance "simply on this emotional issue".