No advise needed from Digvijay on PM candidate: Ravi Shankar Prasad

NEW DELHI: BJP today ridiculed Congress leader Digvijay Singh for his remark that Sushma Swaraj would be a better PM candidate than Narendra Modi, saying it did not need advise from a man who could not "dare" to fight Lok Sabha election and has been involved in his party's three consecutive defeats in Madhya Pradesh.

"Our party has taken a decision after due deliberations. We don't need his advise. But let me ask him who is his party's PM candidate? The courtiers in Congress backed Rahul Gandhi for it but he did not accept the challenge," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Singh had said Swaraj is acceptable to people like Atal Bihari Vajpayee while Modi has sidelined all other leaders in BJP.

Though Swaraj has not responded to Singh's remarks, she has previously hit back at him for a similar comment, saying he would also be a better PM candidate than Rahul gandhi.

Prasad said even Congress no longer takes Singh seriously.

"He could not dare to fight Lok Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh. He keeps making such statements to be in media. Congress under him has lost for a third time in row in MP Assembly elections. We don't need his advise," he told reporters.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha also accused the Prime Minister's Office of using "spurious statistics" to claim lack of development in Gujarat.

Communication Adviser to the PMO Pankaj Pachauri has tweeted several figures since yesterday which show that Gujarat is behind a number of states in growth rate. Prasad said Pachauri's figures are based on "wrong and fictional" data.

Pachauri, he said, could not put out such information without the consent of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded an apology from the PMO.
BJP also accused AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal of being a "front" of Congress over his comments that the country does not need a stable but an honest government.

Prasad said Congress was apprehensive that its "corrupt" deeds would be exposed when a Modi-led BJP government comes to power so it has projected AAP to divert people's attentions.

"Country needs a stable government. Country needs a government with commitment to transparency.... And the BJP government will provide this," he said.

The BJP leader took a dig at Kejriwal and said he should answer as to who took the support of the "corrupt" Congress to run government and whose foreign funding are being probed.

He also welcomed the Election Commission's decion asking the government to defer the new oil price which was to take effect from April 1.