It was learnt that before the JD(U) national executive, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had met the BJP chief and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and assured that his party would not raise the Narendra Modi issue. Some party leaders suspect that following a meeting with “a top BJP leader”, Mr Kumar changed tack and the meet went on to target Mr Modi.
The second attack came when Mr Advani batted for former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and tried to convince the central committee of the party to allow the former party chief to head a panel to oversee the December 2013 polls in MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi. And the last salvo was fired when Mr Advani not only said that the MP CM had done better than Mr Modi but launched a direct attack on Mr Modi by saying Mr Chouhan’s “lack of arrogance” has shades of Atal Behari Vajpayee.
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Charan das is acting c’garh cong president
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, June 3
Union minister Charan Das Mahant was on Monday appointed the acting president of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee, a week after senior party leaders in the state, including PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel, were killed in a Naxal attack.
The state is going o the polls in November-December this year. It is not clear whether he would continue to remain in the Union Cabinet while running the state Congress.
Mrs Gandhi has also made former state minister Bhupesh Baghel the programme coordinator of the Chhattisgarh PCC with immediate effect, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.
Besides Mr Patel, several other party leaders, including Mahendra Karma, were among the 27 killed in the massacre in Naxal-hit Bastar district.