President Pranab Mukherjee changes Bihar plans, no clash with Narendra Modi’s rally now

www.mangaloretoday.com

Patna, Oct 10, 2013: An amended itinerary for President Pranab Mukherjee will allow him to leave Bihar a day before a massive election rally for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi.

The BJP had accused the government in Bihar, headed by Nitish Kumar, of engineering the President’ s schedule to ensure that it clashed with Mr Modi’s appearance in an attempt to combat the politician’s star power.

The President will be the chief guest for the graduation ceremony at IIT Patna on the 26th of this month. He has decided not to stay on the next day to unveil a statue of Jagjivan Ram in Arra, 60 km from the state capital. That’s when Mr Modi is scheduled to address a huge audience in Patna.

"We’re thankful to the President for taking care of our feelings. Of course we can never think of saying no to the President of India but we’re grateful to him. We welcome them both," said BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

For years, Bihar was off-limits for Mr Modi because of a political restraining order from Mr Kumar, who was an ally of the BJP. Earlier this year, when Mr Modi was picked by the BJP to head its national campaign, Mr Kumar amputated the partnership, evicting the BJP from his government.

He said that Mr Modi’s promotion proved that the BJP was planning to pick him as its presumptive prime minister.

Mr Kumar said that was unacceptable because like other detractors of the BJP leader, he alleges that Mr Modi is a divisive leader who did not stop hundreds of Muslims from being killed in riots in Gujarat in 2002.