RSS can't chant ‘NaMo, NaMo’: Mohan Bhagwat

• Modi calls Uddhav, says Shiv Sena a trusted ally of BJP
• Modi's new found love for Bihar a ploy to win votes: Nitish
• There will be personality change in Modi-led govt: Sinha
• Maoist attack an attempt to influence LS elections: BJP

New Delhi: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat has cautioned his organisation's cadre that the RSS should not cross its “maryada” (limits) while working for the BJP.

While addressing the RSS’s Pratinidhi Sabha in Bangalore on Sunday, Bhagwat instructed the RSS cadre to stay away from any personality-driven campaign, saying: “Hum rajneeti mein nahin hain. Humara kaam ‘Namo Namo’ karna nahin hai. Humme apne lakshya ke liye kaam karna hai (We are not in politics. Our work is not to chant ‘Namo, Namo’. We must work towards our own target).

Responding to a participant's suggestion that the RSS’s role in relation to the BJP should resemble the one shared by Chanakya with Chandragupta Maurya, Bhagwat said it was more important to work in an isolated manner in the current circumstances.

“Humaari apni maryada hai. Humme maryada nahi todni hai (We have our own limits. We must not cross our limits),” he said.

Meanwhile, in a damage control exercise, Narendra Modi spoke to Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray amid fissures in the saffron alliance over BJP's overtures to MNS.

Modi phoned Uddhav and discussed the current situation, party sources said.

Shiv Sena is fuming after senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari met MNS President Raj Thackeray, Uddhav's arch rival in Maharashtra, reportedly to persuade the latter to help in avoiding a split in the saffron votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The hush hush meeting took place in a hotel here last week.

Modi's phone call came after senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy met Uddhav here this evening.

"Modi told Uddhav that Shiv Sena is the oldest and trusted ally of BJP," a senior Sena leader said.

Stepping up the war of words with Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar said his promise to bestow a special status on Bihar along with a special package was nothing but a 'ploy' to win votes by 'befooling' people. Nitish also wondered how Modi could make Bihar a "new Bihar", as he promised, without the knowledge and love for the state.

Attacking the UPA government's foreign policy, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said there would be a complete change in the 'personality' of the Indian government if Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister.

BJP termed the Naxal attack on security personnel in Chhattisgarh as an attempt to "influence" the Lok Sabha polls. "We condemn the unfortunate incident...Naxals carry out such strikes before elections. Before the assembly elections, they had carried out a similar attack to influence the polls but they failed. But they will fail this time too," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.