Arun Jaitley and Shatrughan Sinha at the BJP’s executive meeting in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, March 16: BJP leader Arun Jaitley today gave a lesson in unity to party cadres amid continued talks of the growing distance between the long-standing Bihar allies.

“Unless we (NDA) commit mistakes, nothing can prevent the NDA from dislodging the Manmohan Singh-led UPA-II, which stands discredited on account of the corruption of the worst order, sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities and abysmally low growth rate,” Jaitley said while inaugurating his party’s two-day state executive meeting here.

Jaitley, who was a “key” leader in striking the seat-sharing deal between the JD(U) and the BJP ahead of the NDA coming to power in the state in 2005, reminisced: “Just recall how hard it was to bring the state out of the clutches of anarchy presided over by the then leadership (read Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi regime). But I am happy to use the occasion to congratulate Nitishji and Sushil Kumar Modi for working hard together to make Bihar the fastest growing state in the country,” said Jaitley, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

“The BJP leaders should sound like speaking in one voice on any issue,” he added. The message was sharp and clear: cadres should not fight either among them- selves or with their alliance counterparts.

While Jaitley gave his unity sermon, most members of the “lobby” that has been clamouring for projecting Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate — the prime issue that has led to talks of a chasm between the allies — were conspicuous by their absence from the inaugural session.

The absentees included C.P. Thakur, recently replaced as the state BJP chief by Mangal Pandey, ministers Giriraj Singh and Ashwini Choubey and former chairman of the state Legislative Council Tarakant Jha.

Also missing from the meeting was the chant of “desh ka neta kaisa ho, Narendra Modi jaisa ho”— a slogan that is usually heard at most BJP shows of late.

The absentees are opposed to the new state party chief, Mangal Pandey, believed to be close to Sushil Modi — a proponent of the alliance. “Pandey has constituted the state committee and party’s core committee without consulting senior leaders. We have already lodged our protest on the issue with the party’s national president, Rajnath Singh. We will continue to boycott state party meetings till the errors are corrected,” Thakur told The Telegraph when asked about his absence.

Nitish flew off to New Delhi today to attend the JD(U)’s Adhikar Rally tomorrow designed to take his demand for special status closer to the centre of power. Nitish’s show at Ramlila ground is being billed as his party’s independent show of strength in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Jaitley though struck an “unity” chord with Nitish.

Speaking in tune with the chief minister, the BJP leader said: “Union finance minister P. Chidambaram has stated that the Centre will revisit the criteria for defining backwardness. I support the Bihar BJP’s resolution to constitute a committee to revisit the criteria and furnish its report within four months so that the state gets its due.”