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Modi to be Gujarat CM if BJP comes to power: Advani

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Tuesday sought to squelch all speculation on the future of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying he would head the state if the Bharatiya Janata Party retains power.

Advani, on a day's visit to Ahmedabad and addressing party workers, also came out in strong defence of Modi's Gujarat Gaurav Yatra. He took pride in the fact that Modi was continuing as the Gujarat chief minister 'even six months after dissolution of the state assembly'.

Hitting out at critics for calling Gujarat as 'Godse's Gujarat', Advani said the yatra was undertaken to restore pride of the state after the Godhra incident and the subsequent violence in Ahmedabad.

While no efforts were made to control the 1984 riots in Delhi, in the case of Gujarat 'no other government took as firm steps to bring the violence under control as Modi's', he said.

Advani contended that India was secular because it was a Hindu-majority state. "While Pakistan declared itself a theocratic state after partition in 1947, the Constituent Assembly of India did not do so as it was in keeping with our cultural traditions."

Reiterating that the BJP was firm on its ideology, Advani said, "Being a part of the NDA government, we have to abide by the coalition dharma."

He also slammed Modi's detractors for demanding the imposition of President's rule in the state.

PTI

Gujarat Elections 2002: The complete coverage

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