JD(U) president Sharad Yadav in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)

Patna, June 12: The Janata Dal (United) today gave the doddering Bihar alliance another shove towards the precipice by taking a swipe at Narendra Modi and sharing space with Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who spoke to Nitish Kumar and his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on a probable federal front.

Leader after JD(U) leader freely took potshots at the Gujarat chief minister, recently anointed head of the BJP’s poll campaign panel for 2014, painting him as a “communal” person with whom they could not co-exist in an alliance.

JD(U) general secretary Shivanand Tiwari, who is known to speak his mind and has been an outspoken votary of a split, termed Modi a “divisive personality” and ridiculed his proposal to build a “statue of unity” in the memory of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

“Patel was a person who believed in bringing people together, unlike Modi who is a divisive personality and believes in dividing people. Had Patel been alive in 2002, he would have kicked out an incompetent person like Modi from the chief minister’s chair in Gujarat,” Tiwari said.

Agriculture minister Narendra Singh — said to have the ears of Nitish — described Modi as a “hardcore communalist whose elevation as the Prime Minister will break the unity and integrity of the country. The JD(U) will in no way tolerate him”.

The BJP was quick to return the fire, with national vice-president C.P. Thakur, among Modi’s staunchest supporters, daring Nitish to seek a fresh mandate from the people if he wished to break the 17-year-old alliance.

JD(U) MPs and legislators have been asked to remain in Patna on Friday and Saturday, when Nitish returns from his two-day Seva Yatra at Katihar beginning tomorrow. The JD(U) has called a formal meeting of its legislature party on Saturday, June 15, to “review the relationship” with the BJP.

As the political temperature rose, Nitish spoke to Mamata on the issue of forming a “federal front” while his party supported Naveen Patnaik’s Swabhiman Rally in New Delhi to demand special status for Odisha.

JD(U) general secretary K.C. Tyagi, deputed by Nitish, met Mamata in Calcutta and discussed the possibilities of forming a federal front. “Mamata Banerjee talked to Nitish Kumar on phone to discuss the federal front,” Tyagi told reporters.

The Bengal chief minister said Nitish had agreed that formation of a federal front would be good for the country as well as states. “Nitishji said ‘we will be happy if we can do it with the objective of the common cause of the people’,” she said.

Tyagi though was less committal. “You have heard that she has talked with Naveen Patnaik and Babulal Marandi. We are going to have our party meeting within two or three days. We will respond after that. But we are still part of the NDA,” he said.

Sources in the JD(U) said the immediate intention behind Nitish’s conversation with Mamata and the party’s support to Naveen’s rally was to send a clear message to Modi that the BJP would be isolated in the East, particularly in Bihar, Bengal and Odisha — the three states together account for 103 Lok Sabha seats.