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Not in favour of scrapping Article 370, imposition of Uniform Civil Code: Nitish Kumar

The JD(U) chief will later today attend BJP president Amit Shah’s dinner invite in New Delhi.

Not in favour of scrapping Article 370, imposition of Uniform Civil Code: Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar (File Photo: IANS)

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said that his party, Janata Dal (United), is not on the same page with NDA ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the contentious issues of Article 370, Uniform Civil Code and Ram Mandir.

Speaking to reporters, the JD(U) chief, however, stressed that there is no contradiction between his party and that of the BJP, while adding that his party’s views on the issues are the same since the two forged an alliance.

“There’s no contradiction. We’ve always maintained Article 370 shouldn’t be scrapped, Uniform Civil Code shouldn’t be imposed, Ayodhya dispute should be resolved through mutual agreement and court’s intervention. We’ve maintained this since we first forged an alliance with BJP,” he said.

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He reiterated that all key issues are discussed when two parties form an alliance and that the BJP has its own stand.

“BJP’s stand is not new. A party has its own stand but when there is an alliance, all of this is discussed. So there is no problem there,” Kumar added.

The JD(U) chief was speaking to reporters before leaving for New Delhi to attend BJP president Amit Shah’s dinner invite on Tuesday night.

The BJP promised to abrogate Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu-Kashmir. The party has also repeatedly stressed that it will implement the Uniform Civil Code. It has, however, not made its intentions clear about the Ram temple demand.

Kumar also rubbished opposition questions on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), saying that “losers allege discrepancies in elections”.

“Questions on EVM are bogus. After introduction of EVMs, elections have become transparent. It’s a technology which has been questioned multiple times and the EC has answered all of them. The faction which begins losing says there were discrepancies in elections. It’s not new,” he said.

At the dinner meeting today with NDA allies, Shah is likely to chalk out a strategy for the post poll scenario as exit polls predicted thumping majority for the alliance.

Lok Janshakti Party president and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan will also attend the meeting, which comes two days ahead of the counting of votes of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal might give it a miss and are likely to send their representatives.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending the dinner invite.

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