Rajnath: Chouhan to stay as MP CM
It seems Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is not first among the BJP’s successful CM’s as clamour within the party’s rank-and-file and the Sangh Parivar growing each day for projecting him as the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general polls.
Indicating this, BJP chief Rajnath Singh on Sunday, while showering praises in favour of Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan for his achievements, suggested that he will stay put in the state ensuring a hat-trick for the party in the coming Assembly polls. Mr Singh assured the state unit that “Yahan Shivraj Singh hi rahengae (Shivraj Singh will continue as the CM)”.
Pointing out Mr Chouhan’s achievements and schemes launched by him in the agriculture sector “benefiting” the farming community, at the kisan mahapanchayat, the newly-elected BJP chief also mentioned how Mr Chouhan successfully implemented some of the schemes which Mr Singh had conceptualised when he was the Union agriculture minister in the NDA government. Praising Mr Chouhan for increasing the agricultural growth in the state to nearly 19 per cent, Mr Singh sent out an apparent message that Mr Chouhan was the only hope for the state.
On a day when senior VHP leader Ashok Singhal suggested that Mr Modi should be projected as the PM candidate, the BJP chief reiterated that though Mr Modi is a “popular and very capable leader”, he did not rule out the possibility of any other top leader, including CMs of BJP-ruled states becoming the PM candidate. He said there was no dearth of good leaders in the BJP to be projected as the PM candidate. He, however, conceded that as of now it was not feasible to finalise on the contentious issue of a PM candidate, who is agreeable to its allies as well. Top brass of the RSS-VHP-BJP held a strategic meeting earlier this week to discuss issues including the coming Assembly polls, Lok Sabha polls and reviving the Hindutva issue by the saffron party.
When repeatedly enquired about the PM candidate by the media, Mr Singh said that before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it was the party’s central parliamentary board which chose L.K. Advani as the PM candidate... Why do you want us to change this practice now?.”
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