The senior Bihar BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet Sushil Modi, now popularly named as SuMo, has put the party and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in an embarrassing situation when during one of his public visits he was caught on camera saying TV channels will only show him once and then it will be all over Narendra Modi.
The ruling JD(U) leaders have released a CD exposing how SuMo was reprimanding his party media in-charge for his follies.
“People get happy with TV viewership but newspapers are more important. Once published in a newspaper a story can be read even until late night. Channels will show it once and take it off... Sushil Modi will disappear and it will be Narendra Modi all over,” the senior BJP leader Sushil Modi, who of late has left other State BJP leaders far behind in proving his loyalty to Narendra Modi, was heard saying in the CD made public by JD(U) leader Sanjay Singh.
The political observers, however, said that the embarrassing CD must have been released on the direction of some top JD(U) leaders whom Sushil Modi has been targeting upfront while demonstrating his staunch loyalty to his party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Earlier, SuMo was the ardent supporter of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar whom he was projecting as the most suitable candidate for the post of prime ministership.
The senior State BJP leader has often been accused of going extra mile to get coverage in media everyday. “He has been a paper tiger all through his political career and that has been his only USP for the leadership,” said the ruling party leader Sanjay Singh.
Sushil Modi while visiting family members of the victims died in the Hunkar Rally blasts was recorded when he was reprimanding his party State headquarters media in-charge for not ensuring presence of print media reporters to cover his programme. He expressed worry that television coverage of his events was transient.
“What appears in the print media you can read it even until night but the news channels will run it for once and then Narendra Modi and Sushil Modi will disappear,” he was heard and seen saying in the released CD.
The State BJP leaders, however, are yet to react on the gaffe but party sources admitted the video footage would cause more embarrassment for the party and that “too while the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is on Bihar tour”.
“Sushil Modi can do anything to be in the news…he even cannot tolerate his party’s PM candidate Narendra Modi getting more coverage in electronic news channels,” said JD(U) spokesperson Sanjay Singh.
Earlier, SuMo has been singing paeans to the Bihar Chief Minister for having all the qualities to become the Prime Minister like Atal Bihari Vajpayee but when he came back from the BJP’s Goa meeting and had a close door meeting with NaMo he made a dramatic turnaround and doing all the imaginative things to display his loyalty to Narendra Modi, said the JD(U) leader.
“It’s very surprising…I just failed to comprehend what transpired between these two leaders in a hotel room in Goa which made Sushil Modi taking a complete turnaround to prove his loyalty to Narendra Modi,” he said.