New Delhi:
On a day when he was being hailed by other party leaders, Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi received a snub from senior BJP leader LK Advani who ignored the former, choosing instead to praise other top leaders, including Sushma Swaraj.
Speaking right after Mr Modi at the concluding session of the BJP's national Council meeting in New Delhi on Sunday, Mr Advani equated Ms Swaraj's oratorial skills with that of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"Sushma gives me the same complex that Vajpayee used to give me. I tell Sushma that you create this complex in me," he said. The veteran leader went to say that he said he could not say anything better than what Ms Swaraj had said before him. "She has explained everything in such eloquently. She has even analysed why we lost in some states, where there was a hat-trick, where there is likely to be hat-trick and where we could not win," Mr Advani told partymen.
Interestingly, the 85-year-old also had words of appreciation for Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan but noticeably downplayed the Gujarat Chief Minister's speech which, incidentally, had been the focus of the day.
Mr Advani's comments are being viewed by many as an indication of his disapproval of Narendra Modi being projected as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. A clamour for Mr Modi's candidacy for the top job has recently gathered momentum after he presented his party, the BJP, with a record third successive term in Gujarat. But several in the party, which has struggled to find a worthy successor to former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, continue to oppose Mr Modi.
The snub, incidentally, came on a day when the prestigious Wharton School cancelled a keynote address that was scheduled to be delivered by the Gujarat Chief Minister later this month following protests from several quarters.
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