New Delhi:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Saturday avoided a direct reply on whether Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be the party's prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, saying the parliamentary board will decide on that.
"Every party has a style of functioning and it runs according to that. When last time I was the party president, when we had to propose a prime ministerial candidate, I had consulted the parliamentary board and proposed Advani's name. This time also we will call a meeting of the central parliamentary board and it will decide whether to project him or not," he told a private news channel.
He, however, noted that Mr Modi himself was a member of that parliamentary board.
On the Congress projecting Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate, he said: "How can I talk about him being the prime ministerial candidate when I have not even seen him work as a minister. How can I comment on what kind of prime minister he will be? We have not seen his performance even once".
On Mr Gandhi's recent speech at a CII function, the BJP president said: "I will just say that he made as much effort as he could. He made an effort to be prepared before the speech."
Reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hinting that he was not averse to a third term, Rajnath Singh said: "He will get third term only if Congress comes to power."