It is BJP's prerogative to choose PM candidate: RSS

RSS today said the issue of Prime Ministerial candidate is the prerogative of BJP, steering clear of Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani's remarks that its chief Mohan Bhagwat had agreed with his view that Narendra Modi was the best choice for the post.

"Meetings do take place. Whether the Sarsanghchalak was affirmative (with regard to Jethmalani's view), only he can tell you... You have one version of it. What is the other version can only be given by the RSS chief," RSS leader Ram Madhav said.

He also said that such issues are discussed "among the top leaders of the organisation".
Madhav was responding to questions on Jethmalani's remarks that Bhagwat was in agreement with his view that the Gujarat Chief Minister was the best choice for the post of Prime Minister.

The RSS leader said that in all these issues, while people go and express their views before the leadership, the organisation generally takes a position that "the matter should be decided by the party whether somebody should be projected as Prime Minister or not".

"These issues are all prerogative of the party," Madhav said, stressing that RSS has a long standing position that "all such issues will only be decided by the party".

"They express their views with him, they convey their feelings but in matters like this, which are day-to-day political matters, the party will take a decision. The system is whenever such an issue is to be discussed, it is always discussed among the top leaders of the organisation.

"They all sit together and discuss these issues. They sit, people come and express their views before the RSS leadership. It should be taken in that light only," Madhav said downplaying Jethmalani's assertion

Jethmalani had said that he had met Bhagwat and told him that Modi was the best choice for the post of Prime Minister in the party. "He (Bhagwat) had agreed with this (view)," he had told a television channel.

Seeking projection of Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections in a letter to BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Jethmalani had said that it was needed to help convince the voters ahead of the 2014 polls.

BJP has kept the issue of its Prime Ministerial candidate for the next general elections in the backburner with several contenders on the scene and the attached political sensitivities of its allies particularly JD-U.

Pitching for Modi's candidature for the Prime Minister's post, Jethmalani said in the letter that the Gujarat Chief Minister has been a "victim of diabolic propaganda" directed towards projecting him as an anti-minority bigot.

Asked to react on the claim of Jethmalani, Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily said Modi can "never become the Prime Minister of this country. He is not fit to be there...He is known for the atrocities committed. If RSS wants to promote (him), it would only be their day dream."