BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday demanded that the party leadership should immediately declare its PM candidate honouring the sentiments of party cadre, in a not-so-subtle advocacy for Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.
Jaitley, who was speaking at a function to pay tribute to BJP's founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, argued that early declaration of the candidate would help the party in the coming elections. "We all are clear about it and so are party cadre. The sooner we move forward on the leadership issue, the better it will be," he said.
Although the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha did not take names, the reticence may have been motivated by the concern not to infringe party chieg Rajnath Singh's instruction like desisting from making public pitches for Modi. His invocation of cadre sentiment left little doubt that his plea for an early decision was an argument for the early anointment of Modi who enjoys high rating among party's workers and sympathizers alike, which was cited by Rajnath Singh when he had appointed Gujarat CM the chairman of party's national campaign committee a few months ago.
Jaitley's remarks tied in with the estimate that leadership will find itself under pressure for a formal declaration in Modi's favour after the monsoon session of Parliament gets over. The BJP top brass, which appears to be vacillating over the leadership issue because of continuing resistance from some members of the parliamentary board, has justified the delay in announcing its candidate on the ground that doing so during the session would have shifted the focus away from UPA's alleged failures and misdeeds.
Arguing that it was time the party completed the formality of spelling out its leadership choice, Jaitley said that an early decision would help the party frame the battle for 2014 elections as a choice between dynastic politics of the Congress and proven leadership that the BJP offers. He said that the next election would be like a presidential contest where the aspirational class and those disappointed by the weak and indecisive leadership of Congress-led UPA, were likely to opt for a strong and capable leadership. "We will be better off if we offered them the choice now," he reasoned.
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