Maintaining that there are "no contenders" for the prime minister's post in the BJP's top echelon, senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said the party had no dearth of leadership.
"There has been no discussion in the BJP about leadership. No contending persons also. There is no problem about leadership," Naidu told a meet-the-press programme organised by the Press Club of Bangalore.
Naidu, who was asked about remarks by party leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and president Rajnath Singh on the prime ministerial post, said parliamentary elections were still two-and-a-half years away and that "there was no problem (about leadership) earlier and there is no problem now either".
He said Advani's remarks in an interview to a TV channel were taken totally out of context and that he had never claimed to be a prime ministerial candidate.
"Elections are 30 months away. There is no dearth of leadership. There would not be any problem of leadership," he said.
Replying to a query about the BJP having become "a party of dissidence from its claim to be a party with a difference", Naidu said some amount of indiscipline might have crept in "here and there" and this had definitely affected the party's image.
{{/usCountry}}Replying to a query about the BJP having become "a party of dissidence from its claim to be a party with a difference", Naidu said some amount of indiscipline might have crept in "here and there" and this had definitely affected the party's image.
{{/usCountry}}But, he said, the BJP was a growing party where "new blood" has come in and certain weaknesses had crept in. The party is trying to tackle this problem effectively.