Wednesday, February 16 2005 12:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Even as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is avoiding Hindutva issues in its Bihar poll campaign, the party is sending a subtle ideological message to the Sangh Parivar cadres in the State by making as one of its key campaigners Kameshwar Chaupal, who laid the foundation of the makeshift Ram temple at Ayodhya.

By fielding Chaupal, an MLC in the campaign and even showing him in some of its advertisements, the party is aiming not only to win over the Parivar cadres but also woo the backward Chaupal community, party sources said.

The party has also given considerable importance to its MP Capt Jai Narain Nishad with an eye on the sizeable Nishad (Mallah-boatmen) vote bank, they said.

Besides seeking to project a "better alternative" to Laloo Prasad and consolidating Kurmi and Kori voters, one of the objectives behind unilaterally declaring Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Nitish Kumar as the National democratic Alliance's (NDA) Chief Ministerial candidate was to "dilute the aggressive voting" against BJP among the minorities by conveying to them that the alliance's nominee for the top post would not be from the saffron party, the sources said.

Meanwhile, after the second phase of polling, BJP General Secretary and spokesman Arun Jaitley expressed confidence that the NDA would form the next Government in the State.

He described JD-U leader Nitish Kumar as a "natural choice" for the Chief Ministership both in view of his experience as a Central Minister as also his party being the larger partner in the alliance.

Jaitley parried questions on a possible post-poll tie-up with Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) saying it was a "hypothetical" situation.