Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi today pitched for Narendra Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, saying L K Advani has failed to gauge public mood, but hours later praised him for developing second line of leadership within the party.
Amid reports that Advani is standing in the way of the Gujarat Chief Minister being named as BJP's candidate for the top post, Sushil Modi tweeted that, "Advaniji has failed to gauge the public mood".
"Advaniji himself declared Atalji as PM candidate now also he could have done the same for NaMo," he said.
Later, talking to mediapersons, the senior Bihar BJP leader said it seems that Advani did not realise that public mood was in favour of Modi.
The country's mood was to see Modi against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in the 2014 elections, he said.
But, with his comments seen as "disrespect" towards Advani, he praised him in two fresh tweets for developing a second line of leadership within the party.
"LKA developed 2nd line of leadership in BJP. Sushmaji, Jaitley, V Naidu, Anant are all his creations. We draw inspiration from LKA. No Q of disregard," he said.
In yet another tweet, he said "Advaniji is the tallest leader of BJP. Without LKA's blessing Namo, Shivraj, Vashundhra, Uma Bharti could not have become CM."
Sushil Modi's comments on Advani had triggered a reaction across the country.
His pitch for Modi has surprised many. Till the time BJP was with JD(U) as NDA alliance partners, Sushil Modi was never heard talking about Modi.
But, the scenario changed after JD(U) parted ways with BJP and Sushil Modi and 10 other party ministers were sacked from the Cabinet by Nitish Kumar on June 16.
With BJP becoming the main opposition party in Bihar, Sushil Modi and his party have been aggressively raking up Modi's name as the party's prime ministerial candidate.