Country needs a leader who can unite, not divide: Nitish on Modi

In a veiled attack on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi days after the Janata Dal-United split from the National Democratic Alliance, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asserted that the country needs a leader who can unite and not a "divisive" figure.

"We had already told the Bharatiya Janata Party about our apprehensions. We cannot have a man who is a divisive figure. Our diverse country needs a man who can unify," Kumar told CNN-IBN.

The JD-U broke its 17-year-old alliance with the NDA in the wake of the BJP anointing Modi as chief of the party's election campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

"A personality-oriented atmosphere has been created in the BJP now. All the discussions now centre around that," Kumar said. Kumar was all guns blazing over the BJP's decision on Modi. "First, you make it a personality driven affair and after a hue and cry, you say we are opposing the person. But do the people not understand the agenda behind this," he said.

"There should not be polarisation. The polarising figure should not overshadow the issues confronting the country...Can the development model of a developed state SUCH ASGujarat become the model for the entire country? There are many backward regions in the country," he said.

Asked about his 2003 statement praising Modi, Kumar said, "After the 2003 statement, there was 2005 election in Bihar. Why did not they call him to Bihar? Why did not they ask him to come in 2009? I have also talked about what happened in 2002 in that speech."