Union minister for steel Beni Prasad Varma said on Friday that the BJP would not tolerate Gujarat chief minister as its prime ministerial candidate.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, the minister said that infighting in the BJP would prove to be its undoing.
He said that while the Congress was yet to take a decision, his prime ministerial candidate for the Lok Sabha polls was, without doubt, Mr Rahul Gandhi. He said that no one in the Congress had the guts to oppose Mr Gandhi’s candidature.
Mr Varma said that while Mr Rahul Gandhi was a national leader, Mr Modi had not tested waters outside his state and lacked acceptability ast the national level.
The minister said that the state government had withdrawn his security but he was not perturbed about it. “I am 72 years old and God will protect me. If someone wants to eliminate me, what can I say? I have spoken to the chief secretary and he feigned ignorance about the issue,” he said.
The minister refused to make any adverse comments about chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who he looked upon as his “nephew”.
The minister further said that he had invested crores of rupees in Uttar Pradesh through various developmental projects initiated by his ministry.
“Leaders of other states come to me asking for projects but no one from UP has ever approached me. I am doing what I can because I belong to this state,” he said.
He said that two power projects of 250 MW each with a total investment of `300 crores were being set up in Jagdishpur in Amethi. The projects would create 2000 jobs and of these 50 per cent would be reserved for people from UP.