Modi grabs limelight at BJP national council meet

Mar 02, 2013 |

New Delhi

Tags:

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, projected by many within the BJP as the next prime ministerial candidate, today grabbed the limelight at the National Council meet here with party president Rajnath Singh lauding him for three consecutive victories in Assembly polls.

Modi’s popularity among the BJP office-bearers from across the country, who have gathered here for the conclave, was apparent with the crowd breaking into applause each time his name was mentioned. Though the main task before this National Council is the ratification of Rajnath Singh’s presidentship and no announcement of a national role for Modi is in the offing, the Gujarat chief minister was the star of the meet.

Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel set the stage when he announced. That it appears as if not Manmohan Singh but Modi is the Prime Minister of the country.

“Though the prime ministerial candidate will be chosen later it appears as if he (Modi) is the PM,” Goel said about the Gujarat chief minister which was welcomed with a round of applause from the audience. At the beginning of his 95-minute long inaugural speech, party president Rajnath Singh accorded a special welcome to Modi by asking the 2,200-strong crowd to give him a standing ovation for his third consecutive Assembly election victory, which is unprecedented for any BJP chief minister.

“He has made a hat-trick. We were delighted to hear about his victory. We had never seen a BJP chief minister win three consecutive terms. His development model has been lauded by all, even at the international forum. Be it the US or the European Union all have praised his good governance,” Singh said.

“It won’t be proper to welcome Modi with mere words. He deserves a good round of applause, a standing ovation,” the BJP president said. He garlanded Modi amid slogan shouting by enthusiastic party members. The party top brass, comprising of Central leaders as well as chief ministers seated on the dais, were on their feet and and clapped for Modi.

Though Rajnath Singh tried a balancing act towards the end of his speech by praising other chief ministers, Modi appeared to be the favourite with the crowd.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/224282" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-cd99c1a267b54840095df0f074ea8a37" value="form-cd99c1a267b54840095df0f074ea8a37" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85698228" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>