Narendra Modi gets resounding welcome in Delhi

The crowd turned up in large numbers outside the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday to congratulate Narendra Modi. At least, they were clear in their mind on who will be BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 elections. K Akhter reports

A day after being sworn-in as Gujarat chief minister for the third consecutive time, Narendra Modi got a rousing welcome at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Riding high after the electoral victory in Gujarat, Modi was greeted at the BJP office with rose petals, fire crackers, musical bands and chants of "PM PM" by supporters who wanted him to play a bigger role at the canvas of national politics.

It was a chaotic scene outside the BJP office as the whole of Ashoka Road, where party headquarters is situated, was packed with cars.

Delhi Police had a tough time managing traffic as almost 1000-odd BJP workers and supporters gathered at the spot to give Modi a grand reception.

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A stampede-like situation arose when Modi arrived at BJP office around 5 pm and his security guards had to jostle with party supporters to make way for his vehicle.

Addressing the felicitation event, Modi thanked his supporters and attacked the United Progressive Alliance government and its economic policies.

"I have come here to thank my party and supporters. It was possible for a simple worker like me to become chief minister of a state only because of BJP's culture and potential," Modi said, addressing party workers.

Slamming the Congress-led UPA government, Modi said that the "nation is in the grip of pessimism, as the Centre has failed to achieve economic targets and leadership does not have a plan to connect with youth of this country".

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Citing the high Gross Domestic Product of Gujarat, Modi -- who is in New Delhi to attend the meeting of the National Development Council -- sought to project the state's economic model as an alternate to that of UPA.

At a time when the Union government is failing on various accounts, "Gujarat and its progress is being discussed inside and outside the country", he added.

Earlier, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, who appeared to be completely overshadowed by Modi, praised the latter for the electoral victory in Gujarat and said that the state "is the best example for a development model that India should adopt."

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As the two leaders spoke, supporters of Modi kept raising slogans like "Desh ka neta kaisa ho, Modi jaisa ho (Our national leader should be like Narendra Modi)" to push through their demand to make him the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The sentiment also echoed in most of the posters that had been put up at the BJP office.

One such poster read: "Jeeta hai Gujarat, Jeetega desh (He has won Gujarat, will win the country)".

Interestingly, while veteran BJP leader LK Advani was missing from most of the posters, Modi's photo was juxtaposed in them with that of veteran leader Atal Behari Vajpayee.