No difference between Advani, Modi: Lalu

The RJD boss takes potshots at NDA, says Modi is now BJP's face

Taking potshots at NDA, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to clear his party's stand on secularism vis-a-vis Narendra Modi and said that the Gujarat Chief Minister is now BJP's face as "L K Advani has also surrendered to RSS diktat".

"Advaniji has also surrendered to the RSS diktat and withdrawn his resignation. There was no option before Advani. I have always said that BJP is only a mask and the real power lies there in RSS. Now what is left for BJP to declare. Modi has now become their face for the next elections," he said.

"JD-U should clear its stand because Advani has also accepted the elevation of Modi. Nitish Kumar always talked of secularism. The JD-U leaders, who always chant the secular mantra, should come clear," Prasad told the news agency.

The RJD chief also dismissed JDU's argument that if Advani is not at the helm of affairs, it will be very difficult for that party to continue in the alliance with BJP and said that "there is no difference between Advani and Modi as far commualism is concerned."

Prasad, as the Chief Minister of Bihar during the V P Singh government at the Centre, had ordered the arrest of Advani in 1990 at the peak of the BJP veteran's controversial Rathyatra on the Ayodhya issue.

Virtually threatening a pull out from NDA, JD-U General Secretary K C Tyagi had yesterday said, "If he (Advani) is not at the helm of affairs, it will be very difficult for us to continue in the alliance...NDA's prime ministerial candidate should be secular, have a clean and progressive image. We will not compromise on the issue of secularism."

The RJD chief retorted, "Advani is good and Modi is bad. That is an absurd logic. All of them are communal and fascist. But I have always said that they (JD-U) cannot live without BJP. They are trying to befool the people.