JULY 22- BJP president Rajnath Singh stopped short of naming Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, but left no one in doubt that Modi’s anointment for the top job – if the party comes to power after the Lok Sabha elections – was just a matter of formality.
Calling the Gujarat Chief Minister the tallest and most popular leader in India at present, Rajnath expressed confidence that Modi’s appeal would help BJP win the election.
The BJP chief’s high praise of Modi came at a press conference in New York. Accompanied by party MP Ananth Kumar and some other leaders, he is on a five-day trip to the US on an outreach programme and to meet the Indian diaspora. However, it seems getting the US to revoke its visa ban on Modi is on top of his agenda during this visit.
While the BJP has always maintained that it was not bothered about America’s denial of visa to Modi, Rajnath said he will take up the issue with the US lawmakers in Washington. “I will appeal to the US government to clear the US visa to the Gujarat CM,” he said.
The US government had taken a decision not to give visa to Modi in the wake of the 2002 riots in Gujarat.
Ruling himself out from the prime ministerial race, Rajnath said as the party chief, his mandate is to ensure the BJP’s victory and that’s why he had chosen Modi.
“It’s not necessary that the party president should also be a crowd puller and a prime ministerial candidate. I have an assignment to do for my party. I have a job to deliver – that is, victory of the party in the 2014 elections.
“I have named him (Modi) as the campaign head in view of his image, popularity and commitment to the party… He is a crowdpuller not only in Gujarat but also in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. From north to south and east to west, he is one single leader with a national appeal. His popularity will help the party in the elections,” Rajnath said.
He also claimed that the party will get more allies closer to elections and after the polls too.
Despite the BJP’s recent focus on temple and on Hindutva politics, Rajnath insisted that development rather than the Ram Janmabhoomi issue would dominate the party’s poll campaign.
He, in fact, claimed that the temple was not an election issue at all for the BJP. “Ram temple was not a major poll issue anytime. It was at best a national issue but not an election issue,” he said.
The BJP chief will deliver a keynote address on India, Afghanistan and regional security at a conference in Washington on Tuesday.
With Modi’s anointment for the top job now almost a certainty, Rajnath’s bid to get the travel ban on him lifted comes as no surprise. The BJP maintains that Modi is not clamouring for a US visa, but at the time it has criticised the US stand saying he was a democratically elected popular leader.
Forbidden from travelling to the US, Modi takes to addressing audiences in the country through video-conferencing.
INDIA TODAY
