PATNA: The BJP is gung-ho over the bickering in the JD(U)-RJD-Congress Grand Alliance in Bihar, but its state leaders are non-committal on inviting chief minister Nitish Kumar to the NDA fold.The RJD led by Lalu Prasad and Nitish's JD(U) are engaged in a war of words over Bihar CM's support to NDA's presidential candidate and former state governor Ram Nath Kovind against the 17-party opposition nominee and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar , who hails from Bihar and is the daughter of former deputy PM Jagjiwan Ram.Though the BJP's central leadership, after thanking Bihar CM for his support to Kovind, has refrained from issuing any statement on the differences between Lalu and Nitish, the state BJP brass has lapped up the opportunity and appears to be on Nitish's side. But, when asked about Nitish's likely entry into the NDA, even former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and BJP state President Nityanand Rai or his predecessors Nand Kishore Yadav and Mangal Pandey politely ducked the issue, saying "only the central leadership (PM Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah) can decide on it".Nitish broke the 17-year relation between the JD(U) and BJP and dismantled the NDA government in Bihar in June 2013 after it was clear that Narendra Modi would be the saffron party's PM candidate for the 2014 parliamentary election.On Monday, former state BJP president Dr C P Thakur said, 'Who stops him (Nitish) from coming to the NDA? He can come, but the party leadership will decide it. Such questions arise as and when bickering erupts between the RJD and JD(U) functionaries."Incidentally, back in 2012, Dr Thakur, Giriraj Singh (now Union minister), Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Buxar MP) and Rameshwar Chaurasia (former MLA and now joint in-charge of BJP affairs in UP) were diehard Narendra Modi supporters.Choubey's vitriolic remark on Monday was that "Nitish has not yet submitted his prayer for entry into the NDA". Chaurasia said, "Unko Naa NDA se bhagaaya tha, Naa bulaaya hai (We neither asked him to quit NDA nor are we inviting him to join us."However, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) parliamentary party secretary general and MP Chirag Paswan asked Nitish to join the NDA. Curiously, Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) national president Upendra Kushwaha has refused to comment on the issue. Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) chief and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi has also maintained silence after expressing his confidence in Kovind as the BJP's choice for the President's post.

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