Venkaiah rules out Modi's removal

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday ruled out removal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

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"There is no proposal to make any change in leadership in Gujarat," BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu told a press conference on Monday in Delhi after speaking over phone to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had in the last two days been critical of Modi.

Vajpayee had said the post-Godhra violence was one of the major reasons for the party's electoral debacle.

Naidu also announced that the Modi issue would not be discussed in the BJP National Executive meeting in Mumbai on June 23-24 but would review the political situation and prepare a strategy for the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh.

Speaking to newsmen after a meeting of BJP leaders at his residence, Naidu said Vajpayee had told him that he had not not stated that the Gujarat violence was the reason for the party's defeat.

"He and we are of the view that BJP was not defeated because of Gujarat violence."

At the outset he said he had spoken to Vajpayee and told him of the various interpretations being made of his remarks in the last two days in Manali, which have created a controversy. A wrong impression has been created, he told Vajpayee.

"To set at rest any controversy." he said,"I want to make it clear that there is no proposal to change the leadership in Gujarat and there will be no discussions on this issue in the national executive of the party in Mumbai."

He quoted Vajpayee as saying that the vicious campaign carried out by Congress and pseudo secular parties who had distributed inflamatory material and CDs had affected BJP to  some extent.