With BJP leaning towards Narendra Modi as PM, Advani likens Sushma to AB Vajpayee

At a time when Narendra Modi is being seen by some as BJP's Prime Ministerial face, party leader L K Advani today chose to shower praise on Sushma Swaraj and equated her oratorial skills with that of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Addressing the concluding session of the three-day BJP conclave here, Advani said he regrets that he does not have oratorial skills like Vajpayee but Swaraj had such traits.

"Sushma gives me the same complex that Vajpayee used to give me. I tell Sushma that you create this complex in me," he said.

As he began his speech, Advani said he could not say anything better than what Sushma had said before him. "She has explained everything in such eloquently. She has even analysed why we lost in some states, where there was a hat-trick, where there is likely to be hat-trick and where we could not win," Advani noted to the party cadres.

His praise assumes significance as Swaraj, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, as one of the front-runners for the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate even though some are pitching for Modi.

It comes against the backdrop of growing clamour for Modi, who got the spotlight at the conclave with party President Rajnath Singh singularly praising him and asking the cadres to give him a standing ovation.

At the same time, Advani also talked about Modi, describing him as the "most unfairly maligned politician in the history of independent India" and said that most foreign governments have changed their stand towards him.

Advani, the former Deputy Prime Minister, cautioned against the urge among some workers to be in the limelight at the cost of the party and differences between leaders at the top level.

"We in the BJP take legitimate pride in the fact that we are a non-dynastic party that values and promotes internal democracy. But we must recognise that internal cohesion, specially at the top levels of the organisation, sustains internal democracy," Advani told the cadres.

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