Narendra Modi meets Bhagwat,says RSS not involved on PM candidate issue

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today met RSS top brass including its chief Mohan Bhagwat but brushed aside suggestions that the issue of projecting him as prime ministerial candidate for 2014 general elections was discussed.

"RSS does not get involved in such things," Modi told reporters after the meeting at RSS headquarters here. He was replying to a query on the possibility of his being projected as the prime ministerial candidate.

"I was here after a long time to meet RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, general secretaries Bhayyaji Joshi and Suresh Soni and held cordial discussions with them on various issues," the chief minister, who is facing Assembly elections in Gujarat in December, said.

Modi came to the city on a special aircraft and left immediately after the meeting.

The Gujarat chief minister's visit comes in the backdrop of BJP MP Ram Jethmalani suggesting that Modi should be projected as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.

However, the BJP down played the meeting, saying it was a "courtesy" call and no "political meaning" should be read into it.

"Narendra Modi or other senior leaders of the party... they keep meeting RSS leaders as courtesy.... This meeting should be looked on those lines only and seeing it more than that or reading any political meaning into it will not be right," BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in Delhi.

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