'BJP does not work on conditions set by its allies'

Reacting sharply to reports that JD-U does not want Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to campaign in the Bihar Assembly polls, BJP today said it does not work on conditions set by its allies.

"BJP does not work on conditions laid down by its allies. BJP will decide who will campaign for the party in the elections," party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.

Hussain, however, said BJP has not received any message from JD-U that Modi and party's hardline Hindutva face Varun Gandhi should not be asked to campaign in Bihar in the Assembly polls a few months away.

Reports in the media have said that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has laid down the condition that if BJP wants the alliance with JD-U to continue it would have to keep away Modi and Gandhi from the campaign.

When asked whether BJP had taken any decision on Modi joining the campaign, Hussain said, "The issue will arise when the polls are announced. Then a list of campaigners will be made and a decision taken."

Modi had stayed away from the BJP-JD(U) joint election campaign in the 2005 Assembly elections in Bihar as Kumar was jittery about losing his secular image due to the Gujarat chief minister's alleged role in the 2002 communal riots.

Gandhi had faced the ire of the secular brigade when he made his alleged hate-speech during the Lok Sabha polls in 2009.