Patna, Oct 5 (IANS): Ignoring the reservations of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the BJP said Friday that it will invite Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Bihar to address a public meeting.

"Yes, we have invited Narendra Modi to address the Hunkar rally March 15 in Patna," state BJP president C.P. Thakur told the media in Gaya.

A former central minister, Thakur said Modi had been invited in view of his rising political stature in the party and the country.

"No power can stop Narendra Modi from visiting Bihar to address the rally," he said in reference to the likely objections of Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal-United.

A man known for his frankness, Thakur surprised everyone when he said sometime back that the BJP was preparing to contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014.

After Nitish Kumar objected to his photographs with Modi in newspaper advertisements during the BJP national executive meeting in Patna in June 2010, several JD-U leaders had demanded that the Gujarat chief minister should not campaign in the Bihar assembly polls.

Nitish Kumar has said it would not take a minute for his party to break ties with the BJP if the latter projected Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.