File photo of Rahul Gandhi
The BJP smirked as the Congress declared on Thursday night that its big party meeting today will not feature the announcement that Rahul Gandhi will be its prime ministerial candidate. The party's Arun Jaitley said it was a move designed to "duck" a
Rahul Gandhi-Narendra Modi comparison.
Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, is in Delhi today as his party gathered for a crucial three-day national executive meet to fine-tune its strategy for the general elections due by May.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh said the Congress decision that Rahul Gandhi will lead the Congress campaign for those elections but not be the official PM candidate "indicated that they have accepted Modi will be Prime Minister."
Arun Jaitley said, "I think it is a recognition of reality since they know they are not going to form the government. Then why the need for announcing a PM candidate? I think, any party which takes a decision of this kind weighs the realities," he said.
He contended that Mr Gandhi would fall short in a comparison with Mr Modi. His party colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad added, "They know that the Congress is in for a major defeat. That is why the Congress, which is definitely going to lose, did not want to make the head of the Gandhi family as its prime ministerial candidate," he said.
At the meeting, the BJP will finalise how it will attack the Congress on its shortcomings on the political and economic fronts. It is expected to focus on scams and corruption and the government's "policy paralysis." Leaders will also present the BJP's vision statement and discuss outreach programmes like the Modi-for-PM fund.
A few kms away, at the Talkatora stadium, hundreds of Congress leaders and workers will ratify party president Sonia Gandhi's decision that her son Rahul will lead the campaign but not be the party's prime ministerial candidate. (
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