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Favouring continuation of the 'old arrangement' during the Bihar assembly polls, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday left it to the Bharatiya Janata Party to decide whether Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will campaign for the party during elections.
"The BJP has to solve this. We are in favour of the old arrangement," Kumar told reporters while referring to the Janata Dal - United's opposition to the presence of Modi during the campaign in the Lok Sabha elections.
"I hope they (BJP) will be able to solve the issue in an appropriate manner," Kumar said, indicating that the BJP will concede to the demands of the JD-U to keep Modi away from Bihar.
To a question on his party leader Shivanand Tiwari wanting to break up the alliance with the BJP, he said the party followed democratic norms where everyone had the right to express his or her views.
Asked about the possibility of the Ayodhya court verdict impacting the Bihar assembly elections, he said the JD-U's stance has been to resolve the issue either through dialogue or through court.
"All should accept the decision of the court. Any aggrieved party can always move the higher court. There should not be any controversy on the court's decision. We are against people who create trouble," he said.
The Bihar CM said he has explained the JD-U's stance on the Ayodhya issue to senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley during their meeting in Patna on Wednesday. Kumar said the issue of seat sharing with the BJP will be settled before September 27 when the notification for the first phase of election is issued.
He said like previous occasions, the JD-U and the BJP will have separate election manifestoes and indicated that common minimum programme could be issued, if the alliance returned to power.
Kumar has asked the Election Commission and the Centre to provide adequate central forces to cover all booths during elections.