Yadav does flip-flop on backing Advani as NDA's PM candidate

Yadav, who is also the NDA convenor, had in the morning said the history of the country shows that it is generally the elderly candidates who become Prime Minister of the country and Advani is a senior and experienced person.

As a section of media went viral saying that Yadav favoured Advani as the NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate, the JD-U President got into damage control and said he meant no such thing.

"Some visual media are showing that I had taken the name of Advani for the Prime Ministership. This is not true. This amounts to interfering in the internal matters of BJP, which I never do. So far neither BJP nor NDA has decided who will be the NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate.

"I have great regards for Advani. He is a senior member of the Lok Sabha but this is something which has to be decided collectively by the alliance. It is not for me alone to decide. Moreover, being the convener of the NDA, I have a certain decorum and dignity to maintain," Yadav said.

The JD(U) leader said that what he meant to convey was that unless a politician is the son of some big leader, he is generally not well recognised among the masses before he turns 60-65.

Referring to the talk of "generation change" in political parties, Yadav said that "flowers, which grow in pots fade fast unlike those growing in the farm. It is the crop that grows in farm, which can feed the hungry and not the plants growing in pots".

The JD-U chief pointed out that Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani were elected to lead the NDA twice.

"But that is a fact of history. It does not mean that any such decision has been taken for the present. Neither the BJP has decided on it nor the NDA," he said.