Team BJP pats superstar Modi but cautions him too

COMPETITION FROM MODI: LK Advani says Gujarat win marks BJP's revival.

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New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday gave full credit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his success in the Gujarat assembly elections but also reminded him that he was not bigger than the party.

"Team BJP fought the elections with vigour and Modi has emerged as the Man of the Match. He has become the Dhoni of the party," BJP’s national spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad told reporters in Delhi.

L K Advani, the party’s prime ministerial candidate, called the BJP's victory ‘spectacular’ and signalled its comeback ahead of the next general elections.

"The BJP's spectacular victory in Gujarat today is indeed a turning point because it signals the BJP's comeback as the frontrunner in the next Parliamentary elections," he said.

He equated the Gujarat polls to 1971 general election ‘in which the entire Opposition came together on an anti-Indira Gandhi platform’ and said: ‘today is a historic day for Indian democracy’.

“My party has conclusively shown’ that the people of the state voted for good governance, development and a leadership that delivers.”

"State Assembly elections are quite frequent in our country but rarely does the people's verdict in a particular state become a 'turning point' for national politics," Advani said.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, too, Congratulated Modi's leadership but made it clear that nobody was "bigger than the party."

"Modi was the chief minister there and under his leadership the state government has given development to the state. He and his government had a clean image and worked for development. Under his leadership, Gujarat has emerged as a model state," he said in Delhi while joining party workers in their celebrations.

Asked whether Modi had emerged bigger than the BJP, he said: "why is this question being asked again and again—nobody is bigger than the party."

On whether Modi will be the party’s first line campaigners from now, he said: "there is no first or second category in our party and in the next Lok Sabha elections the BJP will contest elections under the leadership of Advani, who is our Prime Ministerial candidate."