BJP, Modi not separate entities, says Rajnath

“Modi was chosen as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in a unanimous resolution by our Central Parliamentary Board and was not picked by two or four individual leaders,” Singh said.

He sought to downplay Joshi’s another comment that he does not favour a “straightjacket model” of one particular state for the country and that what’s good for one state cannot be held true for another.

“Modi has never said that Gujarat model would be implemented across the country. But this fact can also not be denied that development works in Gujarat have been praised in the US as well.” The BJP president further informed that party’s UP in-charge, Amit Shah, who has been banned by the Election Commission from attending public meetings and holding road shows after FIRs were filed against his “inflammatory speech”, has sent his reply to the commission.

“He never spoke for communal polarisation in the state. Congress, SP and BSP are attempting communal polarisation to divert public attention from BJP’s agenda of development and good governance,” he said.

Singh held SP leader Azam Khan’s remark against EC as an attempt to “malign the dignity of the constitutional bodies of the country”. Azam, who too like Shah is facing the EC’s ban, had accused the poll panel of “working under the Centre’s influence”.

Singh also took cue from former PM advisor Sanjaya Baru’s recently released book on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to criticise Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying that she “has diluted the authority of the Prime Minister and wasted 10 years of the country”. Baru, in his book, has stated that PM had no authority in the UPA government.