Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has once again landed in a controversy by describing BJP election campaign committee chief Narendra Modi as a “challenge” for the Congress. His candid admission was seen as amounting to praise for the Gujarat CM, who is considered the front-runner as that party’s PM candidate in the 2014 elections.
Mr Ramesh said on Thursday that Mr Modi “will certainly impose a challenge on us. He represents not just a managerial challenge, but also an ideological challenge.”
His observations have not gone down well in the Congress, with senior leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi hitting out: “If Jairam feels Modi is a threat and a challenge, he should resign from the Congress and join the BJP in Gujarat”. Mr Ramesh had earlier come under fire when he had praised Mr Modi’s administrative calibre in Gujarat.
The AICC on Friday disagreed with Mr Ramesh’s views. “Modi could be a challenge for the BJP and the NDA, but not for the Congress... We do not consider him a challenge,” party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told reporters. “What Jairam has said may be his personal view.”