BJP trashes reports that party is divided on PM candidate

Rubbishing reports about dissensions in BJP over its Prime Ministerial candidate, senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu today said the party would announce its choice at an "appropriate time".
Responding to queries on different voices from BJP on the issue of Prime Ministerial candidate, particularly in the light of party MP Shatrughan Sinha talking about L K Advani, Naidu asserted that the party was united.
However, he said Congress had been rattled by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's elevation as chairman of the Campaign Committee. The party was levelling "absurd" allegations and running a "campaign of calumny" against Modi and BJP, which would boomerang on them, he said.

Flaying TRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao's comment on employees from non-Telangana regions which has stirred up a row, Naidu said there was no need for such statements as it would create misunderstanding and mistrust among the people.
"The process of division has not yet commenced. Therefore there is no need of making such statements. It will no way help the cause of a separate (Telangana) state," he added.
Rao had reportedly said non-Telangana state government employees from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra must go back to their respective regions.

Naidu said the Congress was behaving in "most immature manner" and not done enough homework on dealing with the situation in Andhra Pradesh.

On the possibility of alliances for Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka, he said the party would discuss the issue as and when necessary. "I would like to make only one comment. Before and after the Lok Sabha elections, there will be alignments and re-alignments throughout the country."
Naidu said government's stand before the Supreme Court on autonomy to CBI showed it wanted to keep the agency under its political control. By not accepting the three-year fixed term to the CBI director, the government had only made it clear it wants the "Damocles sword" to hang over his head to make him amenable to political pressure, he said.