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Decks clear for Modi
Party patriarch L K Advani and leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj are likely to strongly argue against Modi. Party president Rajnath Singh who called on Advani on Wednesday failed to get any assurance on his support for Modi’s candidature.
Advani says it will be a disaster
- BJP Parliamentary Board meeting at 5 pm today
- If no consensus, party decision will prevail
New Delhi (Agencies): The BJP is all set to announce Narendra Modi as its Prime Minister candidate at the meeting of the 12-member Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body of the party, here on Friday.The meeting is convened at 5 pm. Party patriarch L K Advani and leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj are likely to strongly argue against Modi.
Party president Rajnath Singh who called on Advani on Wednesday failed to get any assurance on his support for Modi’s candidature. However, he reportedly got Murli Manohar Joshi on board. Advani reportedly said Modi would be a disaster. BJP's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), believes Modi's surging popularity among party workers could extend to voters, and wants Modi's candidature to be announced urgently. Amid the push by Modi supporters to make the announcement at the earliest, hectic efforts were underway on Thursday to muster the widest possible consensus, including the consent of Advani.
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As part of these efforts, senior leaders M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar met Advani to persuade him to give up his opposition, sources said. Rajnath Singh met Sushma Swaraj for one hour on Thursday without any result. Earlier in the day, Ananth Kumar also met Swaraj.
Advani, who is the stumbling block in the announcement, is understood to have conveyed to the party leaders that Modi's projection would hurt BJP's campaign against UPA over issues like corruption and price rise as the focus would be on Modi.
While Advani has not said anything publicly on the issue, his close associate Sudheendhra Kulkarni attacked Modi, describing him as a "polarising" leader" in the society as well as the party and cast aspersions on his ability as a Prime Minister to run a stable and effective government.
"Advaniji has failed to gauge the public mood," Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said in his Twitter message. "Advaniji himself declared Atalji as PM candidate, now also he could have done the same for Namo (Narendra Modi)," he said in his tweet.
Modi detractors
Other than L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh and Shatrughan Sinha are also in the same camp that is opposed - at least on the issue of timing - to the announcement of Modi as PM candidate.
