Carrying further its reservations over Narendra Modi, the JD-U, which runs a coalition with BJP in Bihar, has decided to contest assembly elections in Gujarat on its own.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose antipathy to Modi is well known, will also campaign for the JD-U candidates in Gujarat, where elections are due this year end.

Giving indications of the party's plans, JD-U President Sharad Yadav told reporters "BJP is the larger party in the NDA. We will go for alliance with BJP wherever it wants us, but barring in Gujarat".

He was replying to a question whether JD-U contesting elections separately in a state ruled by BJP will not give impression of a rift in the NDA.

Both party chief Sharad Yadav as well as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will campaign in Gujrat aggravating further the strains between Kumar and Modi that have come to the fore on more than one occasion.

Yadav, however, sought to downplay the development by maintaining that the JD-U never had an alliance with the BJP in Gujarat.

He refrained from answering repeated queries on why the JD-U is making an exception of Gujarat when it is ready to contest with BJP in alliance in all other states.

Yadav also refused to specify how many seats his party wants to contest in Gujarat saying it is for the state unit to decide.

There is speculation that the JD(U) state unit plans to contest 100 out of the 182 assembly seats in Gujarat in the coming Assembly elections.

Yadav, however, said,"we have been fighting separately from BJP in Gujarat for a long time. We are as a part of the NDA alliance in many states, while in many others like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, we fight separately. There was never an alliance in Gujarat."

To a specific query whether the Bihar Chief Minister will go to campaign for JD-U candidates in Gujarat this time, Yadav said that Kumar and he himself as well as a large number ministers of Bihar government had gone to campaign for the party candidates in last Gujarat assembly elections as well.

"Both of us (Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar) have campaigned there earlier also. We will do it this time as well," he said.

JD-U, which is the ruling party in Bihar in alliance with BJP for around eight years, has been contesting elections in alliance with that party in Jharkhand and Rajasthan as well. The alliance between the parties in West Bengal and Tamilnadu has been off and on many occasions, Yadav said.

Yadav, however, sought to steer clear of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's remarks that Sushma Swaraj is the only leader in BJP who is "deserving" and will be a "great choice" as Prime Minister.

"Bal Thackeray is a senior person. Many others persons have also given statements on this issue. It is getting too much now. The Prime Minister's post seems to become a pakodi (snack). We have never fallen into this trap nor will we ever.

"The general elections will happen in 2014. Polls are not going to take place before that. We will decide it then. BJP is the leading party in NDA. It will decide within its party first and then it will be discussed in the NDA," Yadav said.

He also reminded that there are many persons in the past and present whose name did rounds for the top post in the country "but the Lok Sabha has 540 members. The Prime Minister's post is not a pakodi, which anybody will cook and eat so easily".

Thackeray's comments yesterday had evoked a cautious response from the BJP which said it has a number of "capable" leaders to fill the top slot.

BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "BJP has many leaders who are competent to become the Prime Minister and are acceptable in the country... A decision on this will be taken by the BJP and other NDA partners at the time of elections".