BJP's prime minisiterial Narendra Modi during a roadshow in Vadodara
The BJP today sought to set the record straight after senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi's comments indicated that he saw a BJP wave in the country rather than a "Narendra Modi wave."
As Mr Joshi's interview to a TV channel on Sunday renewed speculation about a divide within the BJP over Mr Modi's leadership, party leaders gave a clarification.
"Nobody has said this," BJP president Rajnath Singh told reporters who asked him about Mr Joshi's comment. "Modi is the most popular leader of the country. You can't see the BJP and Modi separately. He is the Prime Ministerial candidate, which is why our slogan is around a Modi sarkar (government)."
Another party leader, Arun Jaitley, asserted that there was "absolutely no difference" between a BJP wave or a Modi wave.
"We are hair-splitting. Today, there is absolutely no difference. Modi is leading the BJP campaign. So, where is the question of any controversy on whether it's a Modi wave or a BJP wave? It's a wave for our campaign, which is a Modi-led BJP campaign," Mr Jaitley said.
On Sunday, Mr Joshi told a Malayalam news channel, "This wave or that wave, Modi is a representative of the party as a PM candidate. So, it's not a highly personalised thing, it is a representative wave. He gets the support from different parts of the country, from different sections of the society and from all leaders of the BJP." (
read: BJP wave rather than Modi wave, says Joshi)
Mr Joshi, who represented Varanasi in the Lok Sabha, was reported to be upset recently at being shifted to Kanpur this time to make way for Mr Modi. There were also reports that differences between Mr Modi and Mr Joshi had delayed the BJP's manifesto.
Mr Joshi, who headed the manifesto committee, suggested in his interview that the "Gujarat model of development" cannot be some "straightjacket model" applicable to all states.
Mr Modi has based his national campaign on what he calls exceptional development Gujarat, the state he has ruled since 2001.