An hour before releasing the BJP manifesto for Rajasthan, party chief Rajnath Singh appeared confident of winning four of the five poll-bound states.
In an exclusive interview to the HT on Thursday, he also backed the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to the hilt and defended the decision to felicitate the riot-tainted MLAs of Muzaffarnagar.
Disagreeing with charges about the BJP engaging in personalised attacks and mudslinging, Singh defended Modi’s dubbing AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi the “shahzada”.
“How can it be wrong if there has been a dynastic rule in the country and what can be more derogatory than the Congress calling Modi ‘maut ka saudakar’ and the BJP ‘chor’?”
Asked why controversies surrounded just Modi and no other BJP leader, he said, “Obviously because Modi is the most popular leader. A threatened Congress has been incessantly using the CBI to defame him”. Eleven political parties are supporting the UPA from inside, three from outside and “the CBI from above,” he added.
The felicitation of the riot-tainted legislators, to be held at a rally in Agra on Thursday, also had Singh’s emphatic support.