Any 'Tom, Dick or Harry' can be declared PM candidate: Shinde on Modi

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday took a dig at BJP over its move to project Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, saying political parties could declare any 'Tom, Dick or Harry' as their leader.

Home Minister Shinde said any small or big political party can declare their Prime Ministerial candidate ahead of the 2014 general elections.

"Koi bhi Ramu, Shamu aur Damu ka nam le sakte hain (Anyone can name any Tom, Dick or Harry)," he told reporters here when asked to comment on BJP's move to declare the Gujarat strongman as its Prime Ministerial candidate.

"But we (Congress) have already declared that Rahul Gandhi is our leader," he said.

After a go-ahead from RSS on making Modi the Prime Ministerial candidate, BJP has started the exercise of finalising a date for holding a meeting of its Parliamentary Board to make the announcement.

Ramlal, General Secretary (Organisation), who is the RSS pointsman in BJP, has been given the task of choosing a date before September 19 to hold a meeting of the Parliamentary Board, the party's highest decision-making body.

After the Parliamentary Board meeting, the BJP is likely to name Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate.