BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha on Friday threw his weight behind Sushma Swaraj saying it would give him “immense pleasure” if she was chosen party chief.

“She (Swaraj) is competent to become the captain among others like Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, B C Khanduri and Shanta Kumar,” Sinha told reporters here when asked if he thought she could pilot the party in the next polls. He, however, said it was for the top leaders of the party in consultation with the RSS to select the captain.

Regretting that he does not hold an office in the party Sinha, who represents Bihar’s Patna Saheb constituency in the Lok Sabha, said, “I am not holding any post in the BJP and unfortunately have been kept out of it under the influence of some vested interests.”

Asked if he felt that L K Advani, under whose leadership the BJP got a drubbing in the recent general elections, should make an exit from the top job, Sinha said, “I hold Advaniji in high esteem...I do not find myself competent to speak about his extension or exit.”

Attributing the saffron party’s poor showing in the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh to the leadership crisis in the party, he said, “BJP needs a surgery to regain its previous health.”