Ahmedabad: Narendra Modi has thrown a challenge at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the eve of Independence Day. The Gujarat Chief Minister contends that his I-Day speech in a far corner of his state, will draw as much attention as Dr Singh's from the historic ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort or Lal Qila.
"Tomorrow on Independence day focus will not only be on the address at the Lal Qila but also the one at Lalan College in Bhuj," Mr Modi asserted in Gujarati.
The Congress slammed Mr Modi for drawing a parallel between his speech and the Prime Minister's Independence Day address. "I hope he does not trivialise national issues and makes misstatement of facts which he is prone to make," Communication and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Many in Mr Modi's party, the BJP, hope he will make next year's speech from the Red Fort. The party is expected to name him its candidate for Prime Minister very soon; perhaps even by the end of this month.
The BJP's star speaker is also its chief campaign strategist and has targeted not just the Congress-led UPA government, but also Dr Singh in particular, in speech after speech in the last few months. He said today, "His (Dr Singh's) speech will just be big talk on promises, while in ours there will be emphasis on development and hope."
General elections are due by May 2014. Before that, Assembly elections will be held in four major states by the end of this year and the BJP reportedly wants to cash in on Mr Modi's popularity in those polls too by announcing that he is the face of the party.
The Gujarat Chief Minister, at the helm now for 12 years straight, makes his Independence Day address in different district headquarters every year. This time it is the turn of Bhuj, the Kutch town that bore the brunt of the deadly earthquake that had struck Gujarat in 2001.
Mr Modi will speak at 9 am tomorrow at the Bhuj's Lallan college, chosen for its capacity to hold a crowd of about 25,000. The Prime Minister's address in Delhi is scheduled at 8 am.