Nitish cannot interfere in BJP's internal affairs : Venkaiah

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu lashed out at the JD (U) Party and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for severing ties with the BJP in Bihar. Speaking to The Hans India here on Sunday, Venkaiah Naidu said the appointment of Narendra Modi as BJP election committee campaign chairman for the 2014 elections was an internal affair of the BJP and asked what right Nitish Kumar or other JD (U) leaders have in trying to dictate terms to the BJP. Will Nitish Kumar agree if the BJP wants a say in the selection of Bihar Chief minister, he asked.

Venkaiah Naidu said that according to political surveys, Narendra Modi was a very popular leader across the country who could galvanize the rank and file of the BJP and therefore was the right choice to lead it. He said that other parties do not have the right to interfere in the internal affairs of the BJP. He slammed the Congress for carrying out a malicious campaign against Modi, unable to reconcile to his growing popularity in the country.

Venkaiah Naidu came down heavily on the UPA government for failing on all fronts during the last 9 years. He said that the economy was in doldrums, the value of the eupee has fallen drastically, corruption has taken deep roots and the Indian foreign policy was in shambles. When China occupied 19 km of Indian territory, the UPA government was down on its knees begging China to go back, he said.

He said that while the growth rate during the NDA regime was 8.7 %, it had fallen to 1.9 % during the UOPA regime due to the mismanagement of the economy. He said that a stable government could be formed only under the BJP and urged the people to vote it to power in the 2014 elections. Ridiculing the proposal for a Federal Front of non-Congress and non-BJP parties, Venkaiah Naidu reminded the people that the National Front had become a notional front and the United Front had become a divided front in the past. He expressed confidence that the BJP would come to power in 2014.