Panaji, July 17 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Smriti Irani's current loyalty to Narendra Modi is "dubious" at best, Congress MP Shantaram Naik said Wednesday.

 

In a statement issued here, Naik, Goa's only Rajya Sabha member, also expressed surprise that Irani, who in 2004 threatened to go on a fast-unto-death demanding the Gujarat chief minister's resignation over the 2002 Gujarat carnage, is now rooting that the same person deserves to be prime minister.

 

 "How can such a person be loyal?" Naik asked.

 

 Irani, who is the BJP's general secretary and in charge of party affairs in Goa, was one of the few younger generation leaders of the saffron party, including Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, to openly back the candidature of Modi as the party's face for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

 

 Modi was appointed chief of the BJP's election management committee amidst controversy at the party's national convention held in Goa last month.

 

 –Indo-Asian News Service