Advani is the tallest leader: Chouhan

Amid the raging debate over BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today hailed L K Advani as party's "tallest leader".
At the same time, Chouhan made it clear that the issue of Advani being the Prime Ministerial candidate will be decided by the party's Parliamentary Board and "I am not voting for anybody".
His comments came a day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the top leader of BJP ally JD(U), objected to the projection of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha favouring Advani for the top post.

"BJP is blessed to have so many seasoned leaders like Advaniji and Atalji...These two leaders are responsible for nurturing the party...
"It's a blessing for our party that there are so many talented leaders with us but no doubt Advani is the tallest leader. Everybody in this country knows this fact," Chouhan told CNN-IBN.
He said the party also has a second-line leadership of Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi and Modi.

However, when queried on Advani as BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, he said the Parliamentary board will decide on it.
"My vote will be with someone who the party decides as the Prime Ministerial candidate. I don't have a personal opinion on this. If needed, I will express my opinion before the Parliamentary board when asked," Chouhan, who was pipped by Modi for a seat on the BJP Parliamentary Board, said.

Ruling himself out of the race, he said different leaders taking different names will hurt party and weaken its position.
"When I'm part of the party I've no right to say anything in the media. We should speak, whatever we want, before the right forum," he said.