JD(U) plays down Gadkari`s remark backing Modi

BJP president Nitin Gadkari had said yesterday that "Modi has good potential to be BJP president and PM..."

New Delhi: NDA ally JD-U, which has been
distancing itself from Narendra Modi, on Monday refused to attach
any significance to BJP president Nitin Gadkari`s remarks
favouring the Gujarat Chief Minister as party`s Prime
Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"2014 is far away. By then much water would have flown in
the Ganges. Let us see what happens in future," party chief
Sharad Yadav told reporters here.

Asked whether his party has no objection to projection of
Modi as Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP, Yadav merely
said, "Everything is there in the reply that I have given."

"We have nothing to comment on what somebody has said.
This is their party issue. You better ask the BJP," was
Yadav`s refrain to repeated queries on whether his party was
comfortable with the idea of BJP projecting Modi.

Gadkari had said yesterday that "Modi has good potential
to be BJP president and PM..."

JD-U had not allowed election campaign by Modi in Bihar
in the last Lok Sabha elections. The antagonism between Bihar
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Modi has surfaced in public
domain many times. Kumar is also tipped to be in race for
Prime Minister, though he had always dismissed such
suggestions.

Yadav was talking to newsmen after meeting the Election
Commission here. Raising the issue of paid news, the JD(U)
leader asked the Election Commission to find a way out
alleging almost 50 per cent of poll expenditure of political
parties was for such activities.

During the meeting, the JD-U chief also demanded that the
officers posted during farmers` agitation last year in Bhatta
Parsaul in Greater Noida areas should be withdrawn from duty
during elections as they "cannot be expected to function in a
neutral manner".

The party has fielded farmer leader Manveer Singh Tevatia
from the area. Tevati`s wife Nutan also accompanied Yadav
during his meeting with the EC.

PTI

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