JD-U calls it BJP's internal matter

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s anointment as chief of the BJP’s election campaign committee on Sunday drew a muted response from key ally Janata Dal-United (JD-U), but was welcomed by other allies the SAD and the Shiv Sena.

The JD-U, while saying it is an “internal matter” of the BJP, played down Modi’s elevation. At the same time it insisted that the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) prime ministerial candidate will be decided by all constituents of the alliance.

JD-U President Sharad Yadav said: “What BJP decides is that party’s internal matter.

Whom they make the party president or chairman of a particular committee in their party is what concerns them. He (Modi) has not become NDA’s campaign committee chairman.”
Yadav, who is also NDA convenor, said that the alliance functioned for 17 years according to its national agenda and “whoever becomes the prime ministerial candidate has to accept that agenda.”

“The BJP will decide its prime ministerial candidate and then it will be brought up before the NDA. Then NDA’s prime ministerial candidate will be decided by the NDA, with BJP and all its constituents,” Yadav added, indicating that reservations on Modi’s candidature continues.

Echoing Yadav’s views, senior JD-U leader Devesh Chandra Thakur said: “Modi’s new responsibility was an internal matter of the BJP. Rajnath Singh has assured us that NDA allies would be consulted before any decision on the NDA’s prime ministerial nominee. That’s good enough for us.”

Meanwhile, mocking Modi’s elevation, apparently to the chagrin of patriarch L K Advani, the Congress on Sunday said that the BJP’s national executive meeting was akin to a “saas-bahu” soap opera.

“Entire country witnessed the wide differences within the BJP. The situation during party’s national executive committee in Goa was similar to that of a saas-bahu television soap,” Goa pradesh Congress committee president Subhash Shirodkar told reporters.

He said the BJP was “nervous” about the 2014 general elections unlike the Congress which is sure of a victory.

Seeking to drive a wedge within the BJP, senior Congress leader P Sudhakar Reddy said, “Congress knows how to respect its elders unlike the BJP”.