Praising the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for his “brilliant and efficient” organisational skills and remarkable performance as Gujarat Chief Minister, party patriarch L.K. Advani on Saturday declared that Mr. Modi was “well suited” to lead the country as the Prime Minister.
Talking to reporters shortly before filing his nomination from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, Mr. Advani said he was happy to be in the city.
“I am not only happy but also rejoicing that I will be seeking re-election from Gandhinagar,” Mr. Advani said.
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Nearly a fortnight ago, the senior BJP leader had expressed a desire to shift to Bhopal but the party had decided to field him from his current seat.
In the afternoon, he was accompanied by Mr. Modi when he filed his nomination papers at the Collectorate, sending out a message of unity. Mr. Modi also proposed his mentor’s name in the set of nomination papers.
Mr. Advani, who has participated in almost all elections since 1952, said the 2014 Lok Sabha polls represented the overwhelming desire of the people across the country to bring about a change. “I am fully confident that the government led by the BJP is going to succeed,” he said.
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Maintaining that he did not see Mr. Modi as his protégé, the BJP patriarch said Mr. Modi had impressed him, carrying out his duties as the party’s general secretary. “I have seen him more in a brilliant and efficient events management capacity which he has brought to bear on governance,” Mr. Advani told reporters.
While he would not compare Mr. Modi to Atal Bihari Vajpayee as “Atalji [was] in a class by himself,” Mr. Advani said Mr. Modi had his “own remarkable qualities”.
Mr. Advani, who skipped the party’s Goa convention last year during which it was announced that the party would contest the polls under Mr. Modi, used the occasion to endorse him. In the post-poll scenario too, he said, Mr. Modi’s writ would run in the party with RSS backing him.