Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Despite his immense popularity and rising support from the party cadres, Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s poll panel chief Narendra Modi’s chances of becoming the official Prime ministerial candidate of the party is still uncertain.
Amid reports that Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Goa are opposed to Modi being anointed BJP`s prime ministerial candidate, party veteran LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj on Friday met Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat.
According to reports, that the two senior leaders told the RSS chief that party wants to name its prime ministerial candidate at an appropriate time only after consulting Goa and Madhya Pradesh Chief Ministers Manohar Parrikar and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The development came on a day when MP Chief Minister triggered a storm by saying that his party would take a decision at the right moment on the issue of naming its prime ministerial candidate.
However, Chouhan, seen as a potential challenger to Modi within the BJP, later termed as "baseless and misleading" reports in the media that he was against his Gujarat counterpart being declared as party`s nominee for the top post.
"In BJP, the party is supreme and it will decide and declare the PM candidate at the right moment. Any speculation in this regard is avoidable," Chouhan said on micro-blogging website Twitter.
Media reports said Chouhan had met top party leaders to request them not to officially nominate Modi as BJP`s prime ministerial contender until elections to Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly are over. The state is scheduled to go to poll in November-December this year.
"Reports in certain sections of media around my objection to Shri Narendra Modi being declared as PM candidate are baseless & misleading," Chouhan said in another Twitter post.
According to media reports, Chouhan, a two-term Chief Minister, had met BJP president Rajnath Singh and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to request them to defer announcement of Modi as candidate for the top job till the time elections in Madhya Pradesh get over as the Gujarat strongman was widely considered a polarising figure.
Interestingly, the Goa CM also today pledged his unconditional support to Modi.
The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister`s remarks came a day after Modi had said he does not dream of occupying the PM`s post and would respect the people`s mandate for serving his state till 2017.
Meanwhile, the BJP chief, Rajnath Singh, today expressed concerns that criticism of Modi has increased after he was made the party`s campaign committee chief and feared that such attacks by political opponents would go up further.
"Our very popular Chief Minister Narendra bhai is being attacked. Such attacks have been happening for a long time that is not a matter of concern. What is truth is truth. But I think we should all stand strongly and we can use social media in this. We can tell the people how attempts to defame and malign are being made," Singh said.
"I think the way this trend has increased, I feel it increased after the announcement declaring (Modi) as the campaign committee chief, it is going to increase further in future," he added while addressing a national committee meeting of BJP`s Information Technology (IT) cell here.
Singh asked the party`s "e-workers" to tell the people through the social media of these attempts to "malign" Modi.
With Agency inputs
