Ram supports Modi, Sena backs Sushma

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Former Karnataka minister C.M. Udasi, loyal to the B.S. Yeddyurappa-led Karnataka Janata Party, along with other MLAs

After senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, it was the turn of party’s Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani, who on Tuesday endorsed Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election. Mr Jethmalani also went to an extent to say that Mr Modi was “100 per cent secular”. But BJP ally Shiv Sena has put its weight behind Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj for the PM post.
Sources disclosed as Mr Narendra Modi is considered close to MNS chief and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s cousin Raj Thackeray, the party do not want to be seen backing the Gujarat CM. Another ally JD(U) is also averse to Mr Modi, considered as “Hindutva icon”, to be named as the PM candidate. The BJP, meanwhile, maintained that it will take a decision on the issue at an appropriate time.
However, a majority section within the BJP seems to be in favour of the Gujarat CM and wants the party leadership to declare him as the party’s PM candidate. Though Mr Modi is considered as the front-runner for the post of BJP’s PM candidate, two key allies are opposed to his candidature.
In fact, late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray had pitched for Ms Swaraj and made his choice public when in September last year, in an interview published in the party mouthpiece Saamana, he had said he would back Ms Swaraj as she was the only “deserving and brilliant” person who fitted the bill.
“She’s a savvy woman and will perform her job as Prime Minister in a forceful and decisive manner,” the late Sena chief had said.
On Tuesday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, “We follow whatever Balasaheb said. He had said that Ms Swaraj should be the PM candidate and had even blessed her. There is no change in our stand. Ms Swaraj remains Sena’s preferred candidate.” Sena had recently slammed Mr Modi for allowing the Pakistan cricket team to play a match at Rajkot.
Meanwhile, Congress dismissed the clamour for Mr Modi as “daydreaming” by the BJP and said it will not come to power.