SP, BSP muted over Modi's elevation

Even as the state unit of the BJP celebrated Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi being named to lead the party campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party gave a muted response to his elevation.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told reporters that it "was an internal matter of the BJP".

BSP leader and party chief Mayawati's confidante Naseemuddin Siddiqui told IANS: "Mayawati has already made the BSP's position clear. We will never accept Narendra Modi as prime minister."

Other BSP leaders refused to comment on Modi's elevation but admitted that it "meant serious trouble for the Congress".

The state unit of the Congress ridiculed the developments in the BJP and said that instead of celebrating, the party should regret the Goa meet as it had brought out the infighting in the party out in the open.

"The dissent in the party over Modi is out in the open for all to see. The country will once again reject the BJP and Narendra Modi in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls," Congress spokesman Virendra Madan told IANS.