LK Advani speaks to NDTV in Gandhinagar
Senior BJP leader
LK Advani, who courted controversy over the selection of his Lok Sabha seat, filed his nomination from Gandhinagar in
Narendra Modi's Gujarat today. Mr Modi accompanied the 86-year-old leader when he filed his nomination. (
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Speaking to NDTV, Mr Advani praised Mr Modi's track record as an able administrator and said 'he'll prove to be a good PM'. Mr Advani said
Narendra Modi should not called his protege or be compared to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was a 'class in himself'.
He also brushed aside any controversy regarding his choice of constituency and said he was happy to seek reelection from Gandhinagar for a seventh time.
Here are excerpts of the interview with Rahul Shrivastava:
- I have seen elections since 1952. I have not seen any election in the past where apart from the media assessment and party assessment - almost everyone is talking about the result.
- Ask any man and he will tell you two things - the present government is going to change and a BJP- led government is going to be formed.
- I will not call Narendrabhai my protege.
- I have never seen a more brilliant and efficient events manager than him. And this events management capacity he had brought to governance also. That has made him more suitable for the assignment the party has given to him.
- I would not compare him to Atalji. He was a class in himself. The main ideologue of the party was Deen Dayal Upadhyay and the person to implement it in governance was Atalji.
- Narendrabhai Modi has proved a remarkable leader, not just of the BJP but even when he was an RSS pracharak
- I'm always happy to come to Gujarat not just because this state has elected me. It is essentially because after the holocaust of partition displaced my entire family from Karachi here... And if we got a place to settle it was a in Gujarat, in Kutch really where my father and other family members stayed for quite sometime in Adipur.
- I am not just happy but rejoicing really that I'm in Gandhinagar again and seeking re- election for the seventh time in a row
- (Question:Will Modi make an able administrator as PM?) No doubt about that. After all he has a record to show even as an administrator, as part of a government...