Chief minister Nitish Kumar at his janata durbar. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

New Delhi/Patna, April 15: The BJP is reconciling itself to the “inevitability” of parting ways with the Janata Dal (United), knowing well that it faces a “precarious” future on several counts, the immediate being the prospective losses for both parties in elections in Bihar and possible gains for the RJD-LJP combine.

“It is inevitable,” a source said, and likened it to the developments of April 1980 when the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the BJP’s predecessor) pulled out of the Janata Party on the issue of “dual membership”. The socialists in the Janata Party coalition wanted the Jana Sangh to sunder its links with the RSS, but Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani refused to, got themselves expelled and formed the BJP.

The only difference between 1980 and 2013 is that 33 years ago, the catalyst for the break-up was the Jana Sangh’s ideological parent to whom every party member swore absolute allegiance. Today, an individual, Narendra Modi, has forced the ideological wedge. “Certain things cannot be compromised,” a leader said.

Advani, in his autobiography My Country My Life, remembers that when Vajpayee and he walked out of the Janata Party, it was a “big relief” that triggered an “invigorating emotion, that of determination”.

Nitish’s no-Modi warning has instead set off confusion and cross-currents in the BJP. The Bihar leader’s tirade yesterday may have provoked the BJP to put out a statement of “solidarity” with the Gujarat chief minister, but it turned out to be a short-lived expression because party seniors again began batting for Advani as a worthier candidate than Modi.

Senior leader Yashwant Sinha led the chorus of support for Advani. He told journalists this morning: “Advaniji is the senior-most, most respected leader and if he is available to lead the party and the government, that should end all discourse. Everyone should fall in line and work together for the party under his leadership. But that call will have to be taken by Advani, by the party and finally by the NDA.”

Later, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who has been propped up by the BJP’s anti-Modi section as a potential PM contender, seconded Sinha in a TV interview. “There is no doubt that Advani is our tallest leader,” Chauhan said.

Various parties, including the Congress and the Left, have questioned Nitish’s “secular” conviction and wondered that if he opposed Modi on that score, how could he back Advani, who, too, had failed the test following the Babri Masjid demolition.

Officially, the BJP continued defending Modi. Asked about Sinha’s submissions on Advani, spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said: “He (Sinha) is a leader in his own right but he does not represent the parliamentary board that will eventually announce the name of the PM candidate.”

Lekhi also reminded Nitish that he was the railway minister when the Sabarmati Express was set ablaze at Godhra in 2002, leading to the violence against Muslims.

This morning, the BJP’s Nitish-baiters from Bihar, including ministers Giriraj Singh and Ashwini Choubey and Rajya Sabha MP C.P. Thakur, met Rajnath Singh, the party president, and reiterated their complaints against the chief minister.

Rajnath has convened a meeting of the Bihar BJP in Delhi on Thursday.

Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey, till now known to be a pro-alliance leader, issued an official communiqué during the day that criticised Nitish for “deviating” from the coalition dharma.

“Narendra Modi is the BJP’s senior leader and chief minister. The party will in no way tolerate its ally making critical remarks about him,” Pandey’s communiqué said. “…instead of praising such a popular CM, our ally (Nitish) has praised the UPA’s Prime Minister and finance minister who relegated Bihar to backwardness and poverty by handing down step-motherly treatment to it. It is quite unfortunate and unacceptable.”

Except for two BJP ministers, Prem Kumar and Janardan Singh Sigriwal, all other cabinet members from the party boycotted Nitish’s weekly janata durbar in Patna today. Nitish too skipped his usual post-durbar interaction with reporters.