Advani continues to target Manmohan Singh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJPs) prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani asserted that if NDA is voted to power, it will amend the Constitution so that only members of Lok Sabha could be chosen to the office of the Prime Minister.

Gandhinagar, Mar 28 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP's) prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani asserted that if NDA is voted to power, it will amend the Constitution so that only members of Lok Sabha could be chosen to the office of the Prime Minister.

While addressing his first public gathering here on Friday to kick off the BJP's campaign ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat, he said, "If the BJP and the NDA is voted to power and we would be in a position to amend the Constitution then I would want that after amending the Constitution, it should be made mandatory that the Prime Minister should be a member of the Lok Sabha."

Advani had challenged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to contest in the upcoming general elections and prove his popularity instead of entering the parliament through the Rajya Sabha.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking on the occasion, said that it is a tragic coincidence that the Harshad Mehta scam of 1994 happened at a time when Manmohan Singh was the Union finance minister. Now the Satyam Computer Services fraud has happened at a time when Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister of the country.

"Advaniji rightly said that Manmohan Singh is a weak Prime Minister as there is a minister in the Prime Minister's cabinet whom he could not remove even after he refused to attend cabinet meetings for the last five years," he added.

Meanwhile, in Jammu, BJP senior leader Rajnath Singh lashed out at Prime Minister overis reference to the controversial Babri mosque demolition.

He said Dr. Singh was trying to incite religious passions by harping on the contentious issue.

"The allegations made by Prime Minister are really outrageous. We didn't expect this from him; I want to say that he degraded the prestige of his post. The way he mentioned the name of Babri Mosque demolition during election period, only means that he wants to disturb the social and communal harmony of the country," he added.

Manmohan Singh had on Tuesday blamed Advani for playing a prominent role in the demolition of the Babri mosque.

Heated exchanges between political leaders are on high as India prepares to hold a five-phased general elections between April 16 and May 13, in which 714 million people will cast their votes to elect a new Central Government.

The main battle will be between the Congress-led coalition and the BJP-led coalition.

ANI