Modi popular leader, not PM candidate, says Rajnath

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has projected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a popular leader of the country and not as a prime ministerial candidate, the party’s national president Rajnath Singh said on Monday.

The parliamentary board of the party will select the prime ministerial candidate later, he told reporters here.

There is nothing wrong in stating that Modi is the most popular leader of the country. The crisis that has arisen over the issue of prime ministerial candidate with Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be resolved, with the party being constituent of the National Democratic Alliance, Rajnath Singh said.

The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre has failed on internal and external security fronts and in its diplomatic strategies. External crises are being faced and China has been encircling the country.

The Chinese army has entered within 10 km of Indian territory in Ladakh and established a temporary military post, and the government is silent, Rajnath said.

Singh said he UPA government is involved in numerous scams. Despite the Supreme Court’s direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation to submit directly to it, a report on the coal allocation controversy, the report has been sent through the government after it was vetted.

Former telecommunications minister A Raja has been denied an opportunity to give his statement to the Joint Parliamentary Committee though he was the prime accused, he said.