Former BJP president Nitin Gadkari clarified on Thursday that he and senior party leader Arun Jaitley had not given any assurance to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi would not be projected as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections.
Reacting to reports appearing in a section of the media suggesting that he had given such an assurance to Kumar at a meeting they had in official residence of the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in July 2012, Gadkari said that he and Jaitley had told Kumar that the BJP had not taken any decision on projecting anyone as its prime ministerial candidate.
Seeking to set the record straight, Gadkari’s Nagpur-based office issued a statement that read thus:
“Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had met then BJP president Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi sometime in July 2012. The meeting had taken place at the residence of leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. The three leaders had reviewed the political situation in the country and discussed the NDA strategy for the next general elections due in 2014.
“Nitish Kumar had raised the issue of the prospective NDA leader for the lok Sabha polls. Both Gadkari and Jaitley had told Kumar that the BJP had not taken any decision on projecting anyone as its prime ministerial candidate. The BJP leadership would discuss the issue at the appropriate time and certainly take all the NDA partners into confidence,” the statement said.
“On whether the BJP would project someone before the elections or elect the NDA leader after the polls, too, would be taken up by the party leadership at the appropriate time and a decision would be taken in consultation with the NDA allies. Gadkari and Jaitley had not given any assurance to Kumar that Modi would not be projected as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections,” the statement added.