BJP to debate Lok Sabha polls, PM candidate
6 Jun 2013 5:42 AM IST
Who will be the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls? This is likely to be debated when leaders of the party meet in the Goan capital on Friday to Sunday.
While the office-bearers will gather on Friday, the national executive will meet on Saturday and on Sunday at the Marriott hotel here to discuss, among other things, a range of issues including the election strategy.
Senior party leaders said that the time had come to start projecting someone as the prime ministerial candidate.
‘There is a feeling in the party that a decision on the prime ministerial candidate should be taken now,’ said a Bharatiya Janata Party leader who did not want to be identified by name.
‘A decision should be taken, whether a leader has to be projected, and who it would be,’ added the general secretary.
It won’t be an easy task though.
There are known differences within the main opposition party on who could be projected as a future prime minister.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who has ruled the state since 2001, has not hidden his ambition -- nor have his supporters within and outside the party.
Although he is a charismatic crowd puller, not everyone in the BJP – or the larger Sangh Parivar – is comfortable with him.
BJP leader and former deputy prime minister LK. Advani recently rocked the Modi boat by comparing Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan with the iconic and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
While the office-bearers will gather on Friday, the national executive will meet on Saturday and on Sunday at the Marriott hotel here to discuss, among other things, a range of issues including the election strategy.
Senior party leaders said that the time had come to start projecting someone as the prime ministerial candidate.
‘There is a feeling in the party that a decision on the prime ministerial candidate should be taken now,’ said a Bharatiya Janata Party leader who did not want to be identified by name.
‘A decision should be taken, whether a leader has to be projected, and who it would be,’ added the general secretary.
It won’t be an easy task though.
There are known differences within the main opposition party on who could be projected as a future prime minister.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who has ruled the state since 2001, has not hidden his ambition -- nor have his supporters within and outside the party.
Although he is a charismatic crowd puller, not everyone in the BJP – or the larger Sangh Parivar – is comfortable with him.
BJP leader and former deputy prime minister LK. Advani recently rocked the Modi boat by comparing Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan with the iconic and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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