By IANS
Gandhinagar : A day after his triumph in the Gujarat assembly polls, an emotional Narendra Modi Monday said he was not bigger than his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“I am not bigger than the organisation. Those who say I am bigger than the party do not know our struggle. A son cannot be bigger than his mother,” said Modi in a voice breaking with emotion and with tears in his eyes.
He was addressing a meeting of the BJP legislature party in which the he was elected leader, paving the way for him to become chief minister of the new government.
While he held a section of the media responsible for portraying him as more important than any other than BJP leader, his words echoed BJP president Rajnath Singh’s first reaction after the party’s victory Sunday.
While Rajnath Singh did give Modi credit for the party’s third consecutive win in the state, he said that nobody was bigger than the party.
Addressing the meeting, Arun Jaitley, BJP leader who crafted the Gujarat poll strategy along with Modi, congratulated the state organisation for creating history.
“The Congress has never gained majority here since 1985. The BJP has won since 1990 (when it supported a Janata Dal government). You have created history under Modi’s dynamic leadership,” he said.
Earlier, Modi along with state BJP president Purshottam Rupala and the party’s Gujarat in-charge Om Prakash Mathur met Governor Naval Kishore Sharma and submitted his resignation.
The governor asked him to continue as caretaker chief minister till new arrangements are made.
Later in the day, Rupala and Ashok Bhatt, the senior most member in the outgoing cabinet, met the governor and submitted to him a formal letter staking claim to form the next government.
On Tuesday, which happens to be veteran BJP leader and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday, Modi will be sworn in at 12.39 p.m., considered an auspicious time.
Modi, who first became chief minister of the state Oct 6, 2001, led the party to a landslide victory in December 2002, winning 127 of the 182 seats. In this month’s elections, the party beat the anti-incumbency factor once again and won 117 seats, defeating the Congress that won 59 seats.