Narendra Modi addresses the BJP national executive in New Delhi on Sunday.

With the chorus growing in BJP ranks to make Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi its prime ministerial candidate, senior party leader L.K. Advani on Sunday deviated from the track and virtually took on the party leadership for its “failure” to “respond to the people’s anger” against the UPA government over a string of corruption cases and scams.
While he described Mr Modi as the “most maligned politician in the history of independent of India”, Mr Advani also called the BJP a “party with differences”, a play on its claim that it was a “party with a difference”.
And despite the clamour for the Gujarat CM, Mr Advani went on to shower praise on Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and compared her oratorial skills to that of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“After Vajpayee, it is Sushma’s oratorial skill which gives me a complex,” Mr Advani said.
Earlier, setting the stage for a likely national role in the BJP, Mr Modi hit out at the Congress, describing it as a “termite”, and claiming the UPA government has been
reduced to being a “commission agent”. Amid thunderous applause, he said: “The time has come to throw out the Congress, and bring in a government that is sensitive towards the sufferings of the people. The time has come to draw a comparison between the Congress and the BJP. While the BJP is for a mission, the Congress is for commission.”
He also hit out at the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for not having made Pranab Mukherjee PM. He claimed the Gandhis were “scared that Pranab Mukherjee’s success as PM could affect the future of the family”. Without specifically naming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said the Congress chose him as a “night watchman”.
The Congress hit back strongly over these remarks, and targeted Mr Modi for his “language”. Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajiv Shukla said he did “not think Modi is yet capable of attaining the stature of a national leader”.
Later Sunday, in a one-on-one meeting with Mr Modi, BJP president Rajnath Singh discussed several issues, including the party’s future roadmap, including inducting the Gujarat CM into the parliamentary board and forming of the new team. Mr Singh is expected to announce his team later this month.
Mr Advani, who also praised Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, took on his own party, saying while “the popular mood in the country is of anger and revulsion against the corrupt Congress-led UPA, but the BJP failed to read and respond adequately to this mood”. He went on to say that “unprincipled handling of Karnataka affairs damaged the party’s image” there. He said the BJP should be seen to act tough on corruption “if it wants to project itself as the best alternative”. Mr Advani also said “mutual equation between the BJP and minorities must be changed to achieve a fundamental transformation in India’s democracy, development and national integration”.
Continuing his tirade against the Congress leadership, Mr Modi said the party “does not allow anybody else (other) than the Gandhi family to be the leader”. In a dig at the National Advisory Council headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, he said it was a group of “five-star activists” created to prevent the Prime Minister from performing.
Taking a potshot at Mr Modi, minister of state for information and broadcasting Manish Tewari reminded him that then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had reminded the Gujarat CM about “raj dharma” in the aftermath of the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the state.