For the first time, senior BJP leader lK Advani has pitted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan against his Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi. Advani said, “Atal Bihari Vajpayee always remained very humble and far from arrogance. Similarly, I found Chouhan very humble, like Vajpayee.”
His statement is being seen as a direct jab at Modi, who often details how he scripted Gujarat’s economic growth story in his speeches.
On Saturday, Advani pointed out that while the Gujarat Chief Minister had transformed a healthy State into an excellent one, Chouhan had successfully turned around a BIMARU State into a developed one. Addressing a massive BJP workers’ conclave in Gwalior, he said the BJP’s ideology was nationalistic and the party maintained the principle of never compromising with morality in politics or even after coming to power.
Advani noted that Gujarat was already economically prosperous when Modi took over and that the BJP leader had only made it better.
“I always tell Narendra Modi that Gujarat was already prosperous, ‘you have multiplied the development there’... But Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were not so prosperous... After multiplying the rate of development in Madhya Pradesh, Shivrajji is still humble as a person.”
Advani’s contention is almost in line with the Congress’, which holds that Modi’s success in Gujarat is built on the foundation that its Governments had laid in the State. “The BJP wants both Chouhan and Modi to play a major role in securing India an important place in the world,” said Advani.