Narendra Modi is '100% secular', make him BJP PM candidate: Ram Jethmalani

Maverick BJP MP Ram Jethmalani addressed a press conference today and said that the BJP must announce its candidate for PM's post here and now as the people are expecting this from it.

He says announcing it after the polls will be counter-productive.

Clarifying that he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of the BJP, Jethmalani said Narendra Modi is BJP's best bet for Prime Minister of India's post.

On being questioned whether Modi's 'communal' links will come in the way, Jethmalani said, "Secular and communal are words that have become words of abuse today. People are using them indiscriminately without even understanding what they mean or signify".

Going further, he said, "Modi is the most impeccably secular leader in India. In fact, he is 100% secular".

On the criticism faced by the Gujarat strongman over teh Gujarat riots of 2002, Jethmalani said, "Modi's enemies are spoiling his name through false claims to deliberately put him down."

However, he refused to speculate on possibility of Sushma Swaraj's running for the top post.

When reminded that Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav of the JD(U) have threatened to walk out of the NDA alliance if Narendra Modi is nominated as BJP candidate for PM, Jethmalani said nothing of the sort will happen, "The JD(U) will remain part of the NDA," he said.

The latest outburst from within the BJP comes quickly in the wake of Yashwant Sinha himself endorsing Narendra Modi as the best man in BJP to be PM.

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