By IANS,
Bhopal : Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani Saturday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress president Sonia Gandhi should have a TV debate with him.
A day after Manmohan Singh rejected his earlier plea for a TV debate, Advani said this was necessary “to let the people of the country know that what we would be doing for them and the country if voted to power”.
Advani was addressing an election rally in support of BJP candidate K.D. Deshmukh in the Balaghat Lok Sabha constituency, in an area affected by Maoist insurgency.
“If the prime minister feels that he is not empowered to have a debate on such a crucial matter, then he can ask the one (Congress president Sonia Gandhi) who has the powers to speak on his behalf.
“But the people of the country have the right to know what the main contestants vying for power at the centre would be doing for them if voted to power.”
“I have told the PM several times that it would be so nice that like in foreign countries, we should also have a debate. Instead of a BJP public meeting, the Election Commission could organise a meeting but they (the Congress) are shying away,” Advani said.
Advani said the 2009 polls would be a milestone in the history of the nation and if voted to power, the BJP would make 21st century the century of India.