Modi phobia spreading like wildfire within BJP - Economic Times

NEW DELHI/PATNA: A day after his absence in campaign posters for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections fuelled talk that the BJP was a divided house, Narendra Modi's seeming dominance of the party has once again been called into question, this time by Shatrughan Sinha declaration of LK Advani as its tallest leader along with warnings about "self goals". The BJP MP from Bihar said on Tuesday that the party utilise other senior leaders, giving credence to talk that Modi, who was last month appointed as the head of its campaign committee, had sidelined them. "I want to ask where are the leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh? I want them to be properly utilised by the party," Sinha said. Lavishing praise on Advani, he said it would be best if Modi's final coronation had the patriarch's blessings. "Despite Modi's popularity, Advani remains the biggest statesman, most seasoned and a highly popular leader. It would be very nice if Modi makes the cut with the blessings of Advani," said Sinha. "If there is no self-side goal within the party, Delhi will be easily within our grasp," he said, adding while some people would see his comments as being opposed to Modi, "the truth is we, including Yashwant Sinha, were the first to root for Modi". Sinha's comments have once again put the spotlight on simmering uneasiness on Modi's pre-eminent position in the party. After Modi took charge, the presence of leaders senior to him created issues of reporting structures. At meetings of the parliamentary board and other forums, the issue of whom would senior leaders such as MM Joshi and Sushma Swaraj report to came up before party president Rajnath Singh. In the end, Singh, Modi and Advani were named as mentors for the campaign, a decision seen as a face-saver for all. As Sinha's comments lit fresh fires, MP CM SS Chouhan sought to extinguish the one sparked by his decision not to include Modi's picture in MP elections posters. "He is a senior leader of BJP and also the poll panel chief. I have great respect for him and under his guidance BJP will definitely win the general polls." Copyright © 2013 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved. via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGmHDQKalLkOmLZuN6n1UQT2uNRfQ&url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/modi-phobia-spreading-like-wildfire-within-bjp-shatrughan-sinha-questions-his-dominance/articleshow/21290234.cms

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