Guj CM would prove detrimental to BJP: Vastanvi

Having courted controversy earlier for praising Narendra Modi, Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, the ex-Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, has said that making the Gujarat Chief Minister the election campaign committee head of BJP will prove detrimental to the party.

"Bringing Modi forward will mean a loss of the Muslim vote bank for BJP. And by making Modi the election campaign committee head, the party itself has dug his own grave," Vastanvi told reporters here.

Talking about education earlier, the 60-year-old former chief of the 145-year-old Islamic seminary stressed on people taking their own 'Taleem' (education). In July 2011, Vastanvi was sacked for praising Narendra Modi following his remarks on the Gujarat Chief Minister's development policies and that Muslims should forget the communal riots of 2002 and move on, which had raised the hackles of the conservatives.