The Congress has said the elevation of Narendra Modi as BJP's election campaign committee chief is the beginning of its "complete degeneration" and described LK Advani's resignation from key party posts as one of the "repercussions".

 

Holding that Modi was made the campaign committee chief of BJP in a very "unusual" manner, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said, "This is the beginning of the complete degeneration of the BJP. It will have its own repercussions."  On the fallout of Advani's resignation, he said, "we have nothing to say on this. This is between the BJP and the person concerned to think and decide. We had already said that this (Modi's elevation) will have many repercussions."

 

He said Modi's elevation is "not a big event" for the Congress and dismissed suggestions that it would have any change of strategy for the next Lok Sabha elections, which are less than a year away. "The Congress has kept following a certain path and will continue to do so," he said. The Congress also sought to drive a wedge in the NDA with Dwivedi remarking that it was for constituents to decide their course of action after Modis's elevation.

 

A Congress leader speaking separately said that BJP's "destruction has begun". Congress general secretary Digivijay Singh recalled that Advani was a man who took the tally of BJP from two in 1984 to 182 in 1998. "If this person has demanded some more time and asked to wait for a while, or demanded setting up of two committees including one headed by former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, what was the problem in waiting for a while. "What was the hurry. After all they were not going to miss a plane," he said.

 

A day after Modi's anointment, Advani today submitted his resignation letter to BJP President Rajnath Singh. Taking potshots at the BJP over the manner in which Modi

was elevated, Dwivedi said the BJP President was garlanding him in a way as if an outgoing President welcomes a "new President". "This is unusual in our political system. Such situations, such incidents are premonitions of the things to come," he said.