No difference between Modi and Advani, Congress on NDA's PM candidate

NEW DELHI: With JD(U) indicating that it does not have reservations against L K Advani being projected as Prime Ministerial candidate, Congress today sought to raise its discomfiture saying there was "not much difference" between him and Narendra Modi.

"I don't find much difference between L K Advani and Narendra Modi. They have same thought, same ideology", Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi told reporters.

At a press conference after the first day deliberations at the JD(U) national executive here, party spokesman K C Tyagi made it clear that JD(U) was opposed to Modi being projected as Prime Ministerial candidate but gave enough indications that it does not have reservations against any other BJP leader including Advani.

"We have earlier also fought elections under the leadership of L K Advani. So how can we say now that it was wrong," was his refrain.

Alvi at the same time insisted that the issue of NDA's PM candidate was the internal matter of that alliance. "JD(U) is an ally of the BJP and it was for them to sort out the issue," he said.

The JD(U)'s antipathy for Modi is well known and it has been harping that a "secular leader" should be projected as Prime Ministerial candidate of NDA.

Congress leader from Bihar Shakeel Ahmed, however, had yesterday mocked at JD(U)'s "secular search" saying "if somebody is searching for secular leader and says no to Narendra Modi but yes to L K Advani, it makes no sense."

"Modi is the symptom of the disease (of communalism) that Atal Behari Vajpayee and Advani had spread," he said.