Patna, June 7: JD(U) leaders today appeared reconciled to a parting of ways with the BJP and asserted that the party had the numbers to win electoral battles even if they were not in an alliance.

“We stand by our national executive meet stand on projecting a secular candidate for Prime Minister. There will be no compromise on the issue,” said JD(U) Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar.

Anwar stressed that the BJP was making an unnecessary hue and cry over the Maharajganj defeat. “The alliance under the leadership of Nitish Kumar has won two Assembly polls and one Lok Sabha election. We have won seven bypolls in a row. Why is there a hue and cry over one defeat,” he asked.

JD(U) sources took pains to emphasise that there is no way Nitish can compromise with Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate. “Nitish Kumar is not Lalu Prasad who split the state to save his government. He will walk out after lying low for some time. He will take the gamble,” said a close associate of the chief minister, insisting that even without the Maharajganj defeat, the party was mentally prepared to go it alone or with an alterative alliance, possibly the Congress.

The JD(U) leadership foresees a three or even four-cornered electoral battle in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “It will depend on whether the Congress fights the polls alone, or goes with us or Lalu Prasad. Even if we part ways with the BJP, the Nitish government will survive in Bihar. In case of three or four-cornered contests, any party having 29 to 30 per cent votes is going to fare well. We have that support even without the BJP,” said a leader.

He said the party was pinning hopes on the extremely backward castes (EBCs), most of the non-Yadav backward castes and increased support among Muslims to see it through. “We may lose a section of upper and Baniya castes to the BJP. But the upper castes do not loathe Nitish as much as they do Lalu. Nitish still enjoys votes across every section of society,” the JD(U) leader insisted.

The numbers, though, belie the optimism. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls for example, the JD(U) would have polled less votes than the RJD-LJP combine if it were not in alliance with the BJP.

Political analysts point out that it may not be easy for Nitish to get 29 to 30 per cent of the votes on his own without BJP support and with the upper castes going against him. “The EBC may be numerically strong but in Bihar they need a dominant caste to support them while going to the booth to vote,” said a political observer.

For now, though, all eyes are on the BJP’s Goa conclave where Modi could be anointed the poll spearhead. “If that happens, and it looks increasingly likely, Nitish will soon have to decide which way he is willing to go,” said a JD(U) leader.