New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani is still against naming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Sources say that BJP President Rajnath Singh tried to placate Advani on Wednesday but he refused to endorse Modi’s candidature.
In fact now the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting scheduled for September 13 is unlikely to be held. Modi’s name for PM candidate was to be announced at the Parliamentary Board meeting. Advani is unlikely to attend the meeting.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said that no decision has been taken to call the Parliamentary Board meeting.
Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) is putting pressure on the BJP to announce Modi’s name. The BJP leadership wants Advani to nominate Modi’s name but the senior leader is yet to agree to it.
Advani wants the announcement on Modi’s name to be deferred till after the Assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh later in 2013.
Sources say that after seeing Advani’s opposition, Rajnath Singh will take the final decision.
Even Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and another senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi are against Modi’s candidature.