With split looking imminent, top Bihar BJP leaders including Sushil Kumar Modi refuse to meet Nitish Kumar

With the split in the ruling coalition in Bihar looking imminent, state NDA convenor Nand Kishore Yadav and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday refused to meet Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

The JD(U) core committee meeting is underway at the Chief Minister's residence to discuss alliance issues. State JDU President Vashist Narayan Singh and several other top party leaders are attending the meeting.

"We are state leaders and have no authority to talk about Prime Ministership which only our national leaders can talk," Bihar NDA Convenor and state Road Construction minister Yadav told PTI.

Yadav and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi were invited by the CM for a talk this morning.

Yadav said he told the CM that "our national leaders including party president Rajnath Singh, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Nitin Gadkari and others have been talking to you and Sharad Yadav on larger political issues including PM nominee...the subject does not fall in our jurisdiction hence there is no point meeting".

His remarks came against the backdrop of a media report that quoted Nitish Kumar as saying that BJP should publicly declare that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will not be its prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 polls.

Meanwhile, the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister has stopped using his official car and is using his private vehicle.

All efforts to contact Modi did not bear any result.

JD(U) had on Friday said that "problems" and "difficulties" have arisen in the coalition in the wake of Narendra Modi's elevation in BJP.

Top JD(U) leaders, including the Bihar Chief Minister and party chief Sharad Yadav, are expected to meet in Patna on Sunday to take a call on the future of its alliance with BJP.

Sensing that a break-up is almost final, the state BJP leaders have toughened their stand on JD(U). After a meeting of core committee of the party at residence of Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday, state BJP President Mangal Pandey had charged Nitish Kumar's party of "poaching" on BJP MLAs and violating coalition dharma by denying permission to hold a function of BJP president Rajnath Singh at a school ground here.