September 13, 2013 - the day when Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was appointed as Bhartiya Janta Party's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections will forever be remembered in India's history.
Not only did Narendra Modi win the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he went on to secure an even bigger majority in the 2019 polls. Recently, he also became the longest-serving non-Congress Prime Minister, leaving behind his own party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Reportedly, Modi's appointment was met with stiff criticism by senior party leader LK Advani. The BJP veteran did not attend the party's Parliamentary Board meeting which took the call on the Gujarat leader. Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi, Nitin Gadkari and others were present at the meeting of the 12-member board.
In a two-paragraph letter to the then party president Rajnath Singh, Advani expressed "anguish" over his style of functioning. "This afternoon when you had come to my residence to inform me about the Parliamentary Board meeting, I had said something about my anguish as also my disappointment over your style of functioning," the BJP veteran said.
"I had told you that I will think whether I should share my thoughts with other Board members or not. Now, I have decided that it is better that I do not attend today's meeting," he added.
Advani had reportedly opposed Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate as his image was that of a controversial leader. He was of the view that making Modi the PM candidate will put issues like price rise and corruption- on which the BJP has attacked the Congress- on the backburner. Despite many efforts, BJP leaders had failed to convince Advani.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today (Sunday) sounded the bugle for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections. He endorsed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the face of NDA in Bihar ahead of the polls.
He also dedicated three projects of the petroleum sector in Bihar to the nation. The projects dedicated by PM Modi, via video conferencing, include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur Pipeline Augmentation Project and two Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Bottling Plants.
(With PTI inputs)
