Delhi is still distant: Cong ridicules BJP's PM nominees

The Congress on Tuesday dismissed as ‘day dreams’ the projection of the likes of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior leader Sushma Swaraj as the party’s prime ministerial candidates, and said Delhi is ‘still distant’ for the opposition party.

"The 2004 PM candidate Vajpayee = Lost 2009 PM candidate Advani = Lost 2014 BJP again in Cuckooland. Deli Door ast Bahut Door ast (Delhi is far away, very far away)," Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari posted on Twitter.

"For the BJP, Delhi is still distant," he later told mediapersons. At the AICC podium, party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, "This is nothing but daydreaming. They are fighting over something, which is not going to happen. There is not even a distant possibility of their getting enough strength to form a government.”

He was reacting to a poser that after BJP leader Yashwant Sinha pitching for Narendra Modi as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Shiv Sena voiced its support for Leader of

Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj as the National Democratic Allianhces’ prime ministerial candidate. Earlier, in Mumbai, Sena Member of Parliament and party spokesman Sanjay Raut said, "We feel Sushma Swaraj is the suitable candidate for the PM's post."

Quoting a Hindi proverb, Alvi said BJP will never get the kind of strength required to form a government and hence it would not have a chance to choose a prime minister.

"Their government will be formed only when they get a majority. There is not even a distant possibility for this," the Congress spokesperson said. All India Congress Committee secretary Praveen Dabar said secular India will never accept Modi as the prime minister.

"If demolition of the Babri Masjid cost Advani the prime ministership, the Gujarat genocide will do the same for Modi." Dabar also ridiculed suspended BJP leader Ram Jethmalani's claim that Modi was secular.

"Jethmalani calling Narendra Modi 100 per cent secular is most ridiculous. By Jethmalani's yardstick, even the ideology that inspired the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and the demolition of the Babri can be termed secular," he said.

Tewari said, "As far as the BJP is concerned, in 2004 Atal Behari Vajpayee was their PM candidate and BJP lost and in 2009, (L K) Advani ji was the prime ministerial candidate and it lost again. And currently 2014 is far and for BJP, Delhi is still distant.”