A day after the BJP declared L K Advani would be its prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a go at the party, saying the move reflected the “nervous” state of the BJP which feared “some threat” from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Addressing press conferences in Vadodara and Ahmedabad on Tuesday, Singh said: “The central leadership of the BJP is nervous. They want to fill the post which is not vacant before the Gujarat election results are out.” Maintaining he did not have much knowledge about the BJP’s internal affairs, he said he had read reports in newspapers that the party feared “some threat” from Modi.

Replying to questions on the threat of mid-term polls from the Left, Singh said that his Government had taken the Left in confidence over the nuclear safeguards issue. As for mid-term polls, he said: “These are mere assumptions, but we will cross the bridge when we reach it.” On Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s “merchant of death” remark, he said: “I do not know the context in which it was spoken”. However, he added that the matter was now before Election Commission and did not need elaboration.

On Modi’s remarks on delay of execution of Parliament attack case accused Afzal Guru, Singh replied: “There is rule of law in the country and law will take its own course.”

Later, addressing an election meeting in Paldi in Ahmedabad, Singh said: “The Gujarat elections are a battle between two forces: the Congress, which represent secular values and faith in Constitutional law, and the BJP that divides people on caste and religious lines and sows seeds of hatred and disaffection among various sections of society.”

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