Modi is hungry for publicity, should first look into rift within BJP: CPI

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Atul Anjan on Wednesday alleged that Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is hungry for publicity, and that is the main reason he is making illogical statements that it's the CBI which would contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and not the Congress.

"It seems that Narendra Modi is trying to play with the elections. It is an election of the Lok Sabha not of the Bal Sabha-the children's Sabha. Sometimes, he is standing and speaking before a replica of Red Fort, sometimes he is standing before the replica of Parliament. What are all these childish activities?" Anjan said.

"Now, he is making a speech that the 2014 election will not be contested by the ruling party-that the ruling party will not contest the election-it will be contested by the CBI. I don't understand. How is he defining (it)? People also don't understand," he said.

"He has to speak something so that he can cover some space in the newspapers and in the media. So, in his statements one doesn't know where is the head and where is the tail," he added.

Anjan also said the Gujarat Chief Minister should understand that the voters in the country were mature enough to separate fact from fiction.

Anjan said that a person who has been elected and projected as the leader of the BJP party, should consider whether by making all these type of statements with his communal bias, he will be able to get the support of the people. "Indian voters are very mature and the crisis within the BJP was seen very publicly in the Bhopal rally," he said.

The CPI leader advised Modi to first get rid of the infighting within the saffron brigade rather than poking his nose into others' matters.

"Advani was not in the center, and on the right was Modi, and (between them) in the center was Rajnath. It doesn't happen like this. The senior most leader used to be in the center. But, it seems that he (Advani) has lost that position also-or that Advani and Modi don't want to rub shoulders in public. They have lost that situation," he explained.

"When the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh, touched Advani's feet, he blessed him. But, before that, Narendra Modi was given a flower bouquet by Advani but he didn't touch his feet. When Shivraj touched Advani's feet, then Narendra Modi realized, and he touched his feet. By the time Modi touched his feet, Advani very deliberately didn't bless him and instead looked at a different point. It shows what kind of bickering is going on inside the BJP," he said.

Pointing out that people of the country were closely following the lead-up to the 2014 general elections, Anjan said: "Those who cannot settle the scores in their own party, and could not put their party in proper reign, are trying to put the country in the proper reigns. It's a joke. I think it is the biggest joke that the people are watching carefully-politically, socially-and they are very skeptical of all these things."

Earlier today, taking a dig at the Congress-led UPA Government, Narendra Modi said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would contest the next elections.

"The next elections will not be fought by Congress, but by the CBI. The Congress lacks the strength to defeat the BJP, so they have put the CBI in field," he said, while addressing the BJP's 'Karyakarta Mahakumbh' rally.

"Remember the excess of the emergency, if the Congress tries to intimidate by the CBI the people will not spare them. If we start writing at Bhopal, the figure will stretch up to Janpath in Delhi- such is the quantum of the Congress' corruption," he added.

Repeating his slogan for a Congress-free India, Modi said the mood of the country is in favour of the BJP.

Modi said a Congress-free India would help fulfill Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi's dream.

In a show of unity, the entire BJP top brass, including stalwart Lal Krishna Advani, shared the stage at today's public rally.

The Karyakarta Mahakumbh was organized to commemorate the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, a founding member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the BJP.