Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday welcomed the elevation of Rajnath Singh as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, saying he has always been associated with farmers which would benefit the party.
“I called up Shri Rajnath Singh ji and congratulated him.
He brings with him vast experience of both organisation and administration,” Mr. Modi tweeted on social networking site twitter.
“Rajnath Singhji served as Agriculture Minister in Atalji’s Govt. He has always been associated with the farmers.
BJP will gain from this,” he said in a second tweet.
The BJP Parliamentary Board earlier met on Wednesday to discuss the new developments.
BJP General Secretary Ananth Kumar told reporters that in the meeting senior BJP leader L K Advani moved a resolution appreciating the good work done by the outgoing president Nitin Gadkari.
The resolution praising the dynamism, good work and open mindedness” of Mr. Gadkari was adopted unanimously, Mr. Kumar said.
Mr. Gadkari, facing allegations of dubious funding of his company, was on Tuesday night forced out of the race for BJP President’s post and Rajnath Singh emerged the consensus choice for the office.
Mr. Gadkari had issued a statement opting out of the election, saying he did not want that allegations against him should in any way adversely affect the interests of BJP.
62-year-old Rajnath, who had preceded Mr. Gadkari as BJP president till 2009, emerged the new choice of the party at a hurriedly-called meeting of top leaders including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS representative Ram Lal on Tuesday.
Gujarat gave direction to nation: Beniwal
In a separate development, Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal on Wednesday showered praise on Chief Minister Narendra Modi and said that under his “resolute leadership”, the state gave a “new direction” to the entire country for progress and good governance.
“Gujarat has now become a torch-bearer in carving out a concrete path to progress by bringing about a positive change in the mindset of the entire nation,” she said in her speech addressing the inaugural session of the new assembly here.
“The state has also achieved the distinction of showing a new direction to the entire country for progress and building a great nation through translating the approach of good governance into reality,” she added.
The Governor, who had been at loggerheads with the Modi government on appointment of Lokayukta, also commended the ‘glorious tradition and strong character’ of the state and said “people of the state have recently put their stamp of support and acceptance on the performance of my government which has displayed utmost sincerity to the people with diligence and delivered results.”
