File photo of Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh (R).
BJP president
Rajnath Singh today put up a strong defence of
Narendra Modi, who has been attacked by senior Gujarat cop DG Vanzara in a letter bomb sent from an Ahmedabad jail.
Mr Singh chose the unlikeliest of situations, a meeting of the party's IT cell, to say, "Narendra Modi is a very popular CM and he is being attacked... these attacks have increased after he was chosen election campaign committee chief and we fear more such attacks in the future."
And, in a message that seemed directed as much at Mr Modi's rivals within the party as those outside, he added, "We are standing strong and need to be conscious of this."
The BJP chief's comments came five days after Mr Vanzara, who is in prison for a string of alleged fake encounters, said that the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat had sanctioned the shootings and then abandoned the policemen when they were arrested on charges of murder.
The Congress promptly said the controversial note provides grounds for Mr Modi's immediate resignation as Gujarat Chief Minister. Days before it had demanded Mr Modi's resignation over an alleged sting that claimed that BJP leaders had tried to subvert investigation in a fake encounter case to protect Mr Modi's close aide Amit Shah.
These attacks on the Gujarat Chief Minister have come as the BJP's ideological mentor, the RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is trying to build agreement in the BJP leadership over projecting Mr Modi as the party's presumptive prime minister in the 2014 general elections.
Mr Modi's powerful detractors in the party, LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday evening and reportedly advised, yet again, that an announcement naming Mr Modi as the party's face should be delayed till after crucial Assembly elections are held in five states in November.
They warn that if Mr Modi is named now, electioneering could get focused on him and away from the BJP's strategy of attacking the Congress on scams and the economy.
Mr Bhagwat had reportedly requested the meeting to know the senior leaders' view on how to time a Modi announcement, before an important meeting of the RSS, the BJP and other affiliated organisations on Monday next.