New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party today hit back at Finance Minister P Chidambaram for his remarks on Narendra Modi calling the Gujarat chief minister neither "bigger than Vajpayee in terms of image and acceptability" nor "stronger than either Vajpayee or Advani."
Mr Chidambaram, in his interview to a news agency yesterday, also dismissed the emergence of the Gujarat chief minister, claiming that the hype around the BJP's prime ministerial candidate was "largely media created."
Atal Bihar Vajpayee, the only BJP leader to head a government at the centre so far, was considered an acceptable face of the right-wing party to its allies, as opposed to a polarising Mr Modi, accused of his government's complicity during the Gujarat violence in 2002 in which hundreds of Muslims were killed.
Responding to the remarks, the BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said Mr Chidambaram has given a "walkover" to Mr Modi by accepting that no Congress leader matches the calibre of the BJP prime ministerial candidate.
"If Chidambaram considers himself better than Indira Gandhi, then it is a different thing. Atalji and Advaniji are our leaders. If he wants to give an example, Chidambaram should know that Modiji is far better than Rahul Gandhi. He should compare him (Modi) with his party's prime ministerial candidate," said the BJP spokesperson.
Though Mr Chidambaram, in his interview, conceded that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate has been able to "unite the rank and file of his party" and "gained some traction among urban youths", he said his party's challenger for the 2014 elections was someone with a "very, very chequered track record."
The Finance Minister, in his interview, pointed out that Gujarat ranks 12th in the Raghuram Rajan committee report in terms of economic growth. His remarks came on the day Narendra Modi became the first chief minister of Gujarat to complete 12 continuous years in office.