Senior most BJP president Lalkrishna Advani has once again scored high against Narendra Modi and dented his PM aspirations by suggesting that three-time chief minister of MP Shivraj Singh Chouhan is more qualified to be the party’s PM candidate.

 

The observation has given fresh ammunition to the Congress against the BJP as it is keen to avoid a direct Modi-Rahul face-off at the hustings. It also has some observers terming the BJP as ‘Bharatiya Jockeying Party’ as there are nearly half a dozen PM aspirants in the party.

 

The comments aired on Sunday come on the heels of the former deputy prime minister seeking appointment of ex-BJP president Nitin Gadkari as chief campaign manager for the forthcoming assembly polls.Advani opening another front against the high-profile Modi by praising Chouhan has the Congress terming this whole issue as a big thamasha and has stirred up more problems for Modi. The Congress latched on to the bickering in the BJP to mock at the party, saying there is a “civil war” in the saffron outfit over the issue of its PM candidate.

 

“The BJP story by Advani ji. Chauhan ji versus Modi versus Rajnath ji versus Sushma ji versus Jaitley ji versus Gadkari ji. RSS versus BJP ji-civil war in Pariwar ji,” I&B minister Manish Tewari Tweeted on Sunday. Reacting to Advani’s remarks, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed tweeted, “People say, by rating Chouhan above Modi, Advani is looking for a safe seat in MP, but I think he will contest from a seat in Bihar.” While the BJP has claimed that Advani’s remarks have been misinterpreted as criticism of Modi, the open rebuke is bound to be seen as intense infighting by over Modi's claim to being the prime ministerial nominee. Advani went a step ahead, comparing Chouhan to Vajpayee, discovering a common trait in the CM’s “humble” manner and that of the saffron patriarch. The anti-Modi voices coming from within the BJP must be music to the ears of Congress managers who seem to be uncomfortable with the Modi-Rahul Gandhi faceoff in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

 

Reflecting a private political calculus, Advani told a party function in Madhya Pradesh that Chavan’s governance matrix deserved more credit because, unlike in the case of a developed state such as Gujarat, hehad to struggle to bring his state out of the Bimaru status. The wholesome praise comes in the midst of an attempt to flaunt and contrast Modi’s Gujarat model with the lack of governance and direction at the Centre controlled by the Congress. Advani, who plotted Gadkari’s exit as party president following the Purti scandal, had three meetings with the former party chief last month, signalling that Modi has to surmount intrigues within the party before he can hope to lead the campaign for the next hunstings