Country practically moving towards BJP's PM candidate Modi: Naidu

Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu today said the country is 'moving' towards his party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and opined there is nothing wrong in some parties having the right to project their leader for the post.

"The country is practically moving towards Narendra Modi. Of course every political party has the right to have its own thinking and what they think about their leader," he told reporters here.

Naidu said this when asked to comment on AIADMK's General Council and executive committee meeting here yesterday, where party leaders and supporters projected their leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as Prime Ministerial candidate.

"What is wrong? Every party has its own ambition. They are free to have their own ambition. But forming a government at the Centre, you require larger support. And I am not saying this simply because it is AIADMK. The general understanding of the situation is unless the Prime Minister has support of the maximum number, you cannot have a stable government," he said.

He said the experience has been that any party with less numbers cannot continue for long. No government, which is a minority leader-led government, not in terms of region, but numbers, has lasted more than one year, he said and mentioned former Prime Ministers V P Singh, Chandrasekar, Deve Gowda and I K Gujral, whose governments did not last more than a year.

Yesterday, Jayalalithaa had told reporters that "cadres had expressed their feelings" and that she had nothing to say when asked about party leaders and supporters projecting her as a Prime Ministerial candidate.

The party's executive and General council had said that with Prime Ministers being elected from states, including Gujarat and Punjab, "the time was ripe for" someone to be elected from Tamil Nadu.

To another query on DMK leader M Karunanidhi's comment that Modi is a "good man," Naidu said "Kalaignar Karunanidhi is a mature politician... Very intelligent man. He understands the pulse of the people. He just spoke the truth. Nothing more than that."

Asked if there was a possibility of BJP having an alliance with DMK for Lok Sabha polls, he said no decision had been taken on it and once it was done, it would be made known.

"The party has not decided on the alliance.Once the party takes a decision on the alliance,any party for that matter, it will be made known. We have not even discussed alliances now."

He said BJP already had 19 MPs from Karnataka and vowed to win more seats this time from that state, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

To a query on Karnataka Janatha Paksha leader and former Chief Minister B S Yedyurappa being admitted back to the party, Naidu said the party leadership would decide on the issue.