Sporting in red Gujarati turban in a largely attended roadshow, former Deputy Prime Minister lK Advani received a grand welcome from his traditional constituency — Gandhinagar on Sunday. Only speaking once during the roadshow, he termed Manmohan Singh as the weakest ever Prime Minister in the history of India in the backdrop of recently released book of Singh’s former media adviser.
Speaking on the book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh’ written by the PM’s former media adviser Sanjay Baru, BJP’s 86-year-old patriarch said the book had only authenticated what the entire world already knew.
“Generally the Prime Minister is considered the most powerful man in any democracy. Even those PM who ruled for two to six months were more powerful than Singh,” he opined. “I have sympathy for Singh, in fact I pity him,” he added.
Accompanied by Gandhinagar constituency in-charge and Gujarat’s Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel, his son Jayant, close aide and former Union Minister Harin Pathak and other Gujarat BJP leaders, he kicked off the roadshow from highly industrialised Bavla area. The octogenarian leader appealed the electors to reconsider him for the seventh time from Gandhinagar constituency.
“I have participated in all 15 lok Sabha elections of the nation since the year 1952, but the 16th edition of general elections (2014) is unprecedented. The country has given mandate the Congress-led UPA Government to leave even before going to vote,” said Advani.
On a question from mediapersons over his role in case BJP comes to power, Advani said that he would be happy to accept any role that party would offer him. He also claimed that BJP would gain immensely from Southern States too. “I was in Kerala on Saturday and could sense BJP wave there also,” he asserted. He said that he would come back to his constituency after a couple of days as he would travel to Bihar for campaigning. later in the evening, the veteran leader also inaugurated two election offices at Kalol and Gandhinagar and addressed a gathering of youngsters at both the places.