Political controversy has been ignited after an advertisement that showed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar holding hands was released by the BJP.

With this, the ties between Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Janta Dal-United (JD-U) have come under immense pressure even as the BJP has kicked off its campaign for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Bihar.

Nitish, displeased by the ad, annoyingly cancelled a dinner for BJP leaders on Saturday. Modi on other hand, reportedly said that he is upset with the release.

Clarifying his role, the head of the advertising agency in Patna which released the controversial ad, stated that it was given approval by the Surat BJP MP, CR Patil.

Arindam Guha, Director of the ad agency, added that the final artwork wouldn’t have been published had Mr. Patil not given the green signal. It was also said that the final draft was sent to the newspapers at around 5 p.m.

Guha said that in case there would have been any objection, there was enough time to stop the release but no such opposition was posed.

He also said that the ad was not political and that many local businessmen from Bihar were involved.

Also, he said that the businessmen were the contributors and the agency did nothing as it was only paid money for the work.