By IANS,
New Delhi : Taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the controversy over its prime ministerial candidate, the Congress party Friday suggested that the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) should conduct an internal election to finalise a consensual name.
“Their (BJP and NDA) list of PMs-in-waiting is increasing day by day. Narendra Modi, who is campaigning ferociously among the corporate world, should realise that when he is not able to observe `Raj Dharma’ (duty of the ruler) in one state, how will he be able to do it in the country?” asked Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Singhvi was referring to the remarks by top industrialists Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal Wednesday that Gujarat Chief Minister Modi would make for an able prime minister.
“Modi should remember that once the Indian corporate world also promoted (former Andhra Pradesh chief minister) N. Chandrababu Naidu as a prime minister, but parted ways with him after he lost the elections,” Singhvi pointed out.
The BJP-led NDA is projecting senior leader L.K. Advani as the next prime minister and now Modi’s name has cropped up, though not from the party. However, a section within the BJP is said to favour Modi as prime minister. Former vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat put the party in a tizzy when he announced that he would fight the Lok Sabha polls, and added that he was the seniormost in the party, even to Advani.
On the removal of senior Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi from the panel of the party’s spokespersons, Singhvi said: “He was not briefing the media for a long time. This was to formalise the situation.”
The action against Chaturvedi is also related to his controversial comments on Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, he added.
Chaturvedi Wednesday asked Singh to go for a “physical and mental check-up”.
Chaturvedi said he had “no official information” about his removal from the post.
Meanwhile, Congress media department chairman M. Veerappa Moily advised the party spokespersons “to refrain from passing such comments.”