NEW DELHI, Sept 13: Narendra Modi, strong but controversial Gujarat Chief Minister, was today named BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls despite stiff opposition from party patriarch L K Advani.
The self-avowed Hindu nationalist, four days short of his turning 63 years, was anointed at a meeting here of the 12-member BJP Parliamentary Board which a sulking Advani skipped.
The announcement was made by BJP chief Rajnath Singh in the meeting which was attended by Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj, who too were said to be opposed to Modi’s project at this juncture but finally toed the majority line.
Accepting the party decision, Modi gave a slogan “nayi sonch, nayi ummeed” (new thinking, new hope) and said the BJP will go the 2014 polls with the plank of good governance and development while fighting against corruption and price rise.
He said the country is going through a “crisis” and BJP would require blessings of people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Attock to Cuttack so that this situation ends.
Thanking party leaders and NDA allies for their support, the three-time Gujarat Chief Minister said will work tirelessly to ensure that BJP wins the 2014 elections.
However, Advani touched a sour note by releasing an angry letter written by him to the party chief almost at the same time when announcement about Modi was made.
“This afternoon when you had come to my residence to inform me about the Parliamentary Board meeting, I had said something about my anguish as also my disappointment over your style of functioning,” he said in the two-para letter.
“I had told you that I will think whether I should share my thoughts with other Board members or not. Now I have decided that it is better that I do not attend today’s meeting,” he wrote.
Soon after the announcement, Modi met Advani to seek his blessings. During the 30-minute meeting, Advani obliged him but also asked him about the letter written by suspended IPS officer D G Vanzara who quit service while attacking Modi.
Advani initially appeared willing to attend the Board meeting but changed his mind at the last minute.
Rajnath Singh, who made the announcement after hectic back-to-back meetings, said the decision was “unanimous” and taken keeping in view the popular mood and aspirations.
He said it was done as per the party’s tradition where the Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body of the party, takes the decision.
Modi thanked party leadership and workers for reposing faith in him. He also expressed gratitude to NDA allies for supporting him through telephone calls.
Wishing to rise to the people’s expectations, Modi expressed confidence that the people of the country will also repose faith in his leadership and the “new hope” it has provided.
Rajnath Singh said the decision was taken keeping in view the mood and aspirations of the people. He said the decision was taken “unanimously”.
On Advani’s protest, he said he is a respected leader and will continue to be respected. “We will keep seeking his guidance,” he said.
Before the Parliamentary Board meeting, Gadkari met Advani to persuade him on Modi’s name. Swaraj and Ananth Kumar also joined the meeting.
Advani had conveyed his reservations about announcing Modi’s name at this juncture. He had suggested that the BJP Chief Ministers should be consulted on the issue and the party should wait till the forthcoming Assembly elections to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi are over.
Advani was of the view that making Modi the Prime Ministerial candidate will put issues like price rise and corruption- on which the BJP has attacked the Congress- on the backburner and make the controversial leader the issue.
Joshi and Swaraj, who too were said to be having reservations to Modi’s projection at this juncture, changed their stand to join the majority.
Significantly, Swaraj cancelled her plan to visit Haryana this morning to attend the Board meeting.
Earlier, Gadkari met Rajnath Singh to discuss the issue. Later, Gadkari met Advani to persuade him on Modi’s name. Swaraj and Ananth Kumar also joined the meeting.
Joshi was asked to return to the capital by a special flight from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh where he had gone to attend a party programme.
Modi got a shot in the arm today when NDA allies Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal extended their support to him for the PM candidate post.
In Bangalore, former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who had quit BJP and launched a regional party Karnataka Janata Party (KJP), today expressed extreme happiness over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi being projected as BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
Speaking to reporters here, he said that ‘Mr Modi was the best possible candidate BJP could find after A B Vajyapee’ and his party will support NDA with ‘immediate effect’.
He said projecting Mr Modi was a good strategic move by the BJP and said now Congress will ‘fear’ the Gujarat Chief Minister.
Mr Yeddyurappa said Mr Modi being projected as the next Prime Minister was ‘in tune with the popular wish’ of the people.
‘The KJP today has decided to extend support to the NDA as we are happy with Mr Modi’s elevation in the BJP. If he becomes the next Prime Minister, he will have full support of our party. Senior leaders of KJP would soon take a decision on this matter,’ he said.
BJP today described the anointment of Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as a “defining moment” for the party.
Hailing Modi’s choice as a “good decision”, senior party leaders felt the step will bring the party back to power in the next general elections.
“It is a winning decision and BJP will emerge victorious,” senior party leader Arun Jaitley said after the announcement of Modi as the party’s PM candidate was made.
“It is a good decision,” said senior party leader Sushma Swaraj who was till yesterday was opposed to Modi’s candidature.
Former party chief M Venkaiah Naidu sought to play down the absence of senior party leader L K Advani from the Parliamentary Board meeting, saying “there is no question of Advaniji being sidelined. He is the tallest leader of the party.”
However, Naidu said he would have been happy with Advani’s presence as he brought the party to the level where it is today.
“I would have been happy… Now that the decision has been taken (about Modi’s anointment), we are a democratic party, in a party we take decisions after proper discussions, we had discussions at every level and a decision has been taken”, he said.
However, Advani’s close associate Sudheendhra Kulkarni though did not hide his displeasure over the decision on Modi saying, “history will show that it is a wrong choice and most probably it is not a very very useful choice”.
Dismissing suggestions that Advani had any personal ambition, Kulkarni said personal gain and loss does not matter to Advani as he is “the most selfless leader” in Indian politics.
“He might get completly isolated and his personal political career might have come to an end today. That does not matter. He has rendered a great service to the nation and in fact to his party,” he said.
BJP leader Ananth Kumar said “Narendrabhai is going to get his (Advani’s) blessings”.
“We will unitedly face the Congress party in 2014 elections,” he said.
Hailing Modi’s selection, NDA ally Shiv Sena said “BJP, being the largest ally, has the prerogative to propose the name of a leader which they have rightly done”.
Party leader Rahul Narvikar said both BJP president Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi had called Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and had a lengthy conversation with him.
He said Thackeray has conveyed his best wishes to Modi.
The announcement of Modi as BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate was celebrated across Gujarat by party workers and others who set off fire crackers and distributed sweets.
Hiraba, Modi’s mother, was offered sweets by Pankaj Modi, the Chief Minister’s younger brother with whom she is currently living at his house in sector-22 in Gandhinagar.
Hundreds of BJP workers started burst fire-crackers outside the BJP headquarters here as State BJP chief R C Faldu informed them about the development. It was accompanied by drum-beating and slogan-shouting.
Workers gathered in large number at BJP offices across the State in anticipation of the announcement.
Large-scale celebrations were witnessed in Vadodara, Surat, Valsad and Rajkot, among other places.
Modi’s fans and even ordinary people were seen distributing sweets and congratulating each other.
“Today, while the country, under UPA Government, is pushed into the darkness, while people are aspiring for an able and powerful leader, the announcement of Narendra Modi as PM candidate has come at a very crucial and right moment,” said Faldu, addressing workers outside BJP office at Khanpur here.
“I, on behalf of whole of Gujarat and BJP, welcome this announcement and congratulate the Parliamentary Board,” he added.
Meanwhile, Congress today downplayed Narendra Modi’s anointment as BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, while the Samajwadi Party said his “dream will never come true”.
DMK president M Karunanidhi indicated that he may not support Modi saying his party “would not go back on its ideology of opposing communalism,” while Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress said it was an internal matter of BJP.
NDA allies Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Shiv Sena, however, hailed the decision saying it reflected the mood of the people.
“We simply cannot be bothered”, Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury told reporters when asked how Congress sees the Gujarat Chief Minister as the PM candidate of the BJP.
Veteran CPI leader A B Bardhan said it would only pave the way for a revolt in BJP.
Samajwadi Party, which is an outside ally of UPA, said people will never accept Modi, his ideology and policies.
“His dream will never come true”, said party leader Naresh Agrawal.
TMC leader Derek O’ Brien said Modi’s anointment was an internal matter of BJP.
“We are a different political party. They have their own views, we have our own views,” he said.
Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said in a statement that the decision was expected “and is the mood of the people too”.
“Nectar has come out of the “samudra manthan” (churning of the sea),” Uddhav said, in apparent reference to the friction within BJP on the issue.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, while congratulating Modi, said people of the country are eager to topple the “directionless UPA Government” led by Congress.
Sukhbir, who assured firm support of his party to Modi’s candidature, said the Gujarat Chief Minister had a “strong public appeal” and “proven track record.” (PTI)
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