Panaji:
BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said
Narendra Modi is the "best possible card" for the party in the Lok Sabha elections and dismissed media speculation that LK Advani was opposed to his elevation.
"It is not only an overwhelming consensus among the leaders but there is a near unanimous view among the cadres that you have to give a special responsibility to a person who is perceived as highly popular and inspirational leader as far as cadres are concerned.
"A party has to play its best possible card in the elections and that is what the party president has done," he said reacting to Mr Modi's appointment as Chairman of the BJP Campaign Committee for the Lok Sabha polls.
Asked whether there were no divisions in the party on the issue and whether Mr Advani had suggested setting up of another Committee, Mr Jaitley said "I am not aware of any such view (of Advani). The entire generation of leaders is at present active in the party, not one of them has done a fraction of services that Advani had lent to the party."
He said Mr Advani's views are always heard with attention regardless of what he says by leaders of the party. "He has no such position as has been widely perceived by the media," Mr Jaitley said.
Dismissing speculation that Mr Advani had kept away from the meeting because of his opposition to Mr Modi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said that the party veteran stayed away because he was not in the best of health since the past few days and the media should accept it graciously.
Asked whether Mr Modi will be announced as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections, he said that any further decision will be taken at the right time.
Mr Jaitley said that the decision to choose Mr Modi as the chairman will now intensify the fight between the Congress and BJP in which Congress is poorly placed.
"We have intensified the campaign against the Congress party," he said.