PM candidate to be decided after polls: Shahnawaz

Raipur, Sep 9 (UNI) Bharatiya Janata Party will decide on its prime ministerial candidate only after the Lok Sabha elections, party's minority morcha president and former union minister Shahnawaz Hussain said today.

''Let the elections come. The party will take decision on such issues at an appropriate time,'' he told newsmen here.

Mr Hussain, who was here to attend a seminar being organised by the BJP Minority Morcha on Wakf matters, was replying to questions about speculation over the leadership issue in the BJP in the wake of indications about the possibility of an early mid term elections.

He did not agree with the perception that there were differences within the organisation over the leadership issue, pointing out that elections had not not been announced so far.

Asked about reports regarding pre-poll surveys which projected less number of seats for the BJP in the event of a mid term poll to the Lok Sabha , Mr Hussain said such surveys did not not reflect the real mood of the masses. '' Whenever surveys projected a possible picture, the results went otherwise'', he added.

Regarding the UPA government's move on Sachar Committee recommendations, the former union minister said the committee had infact exposed that the successive Congress governments, which was in power for more than five decades, did nothing for the minorities.

Claiming that the Sachar Committee was set up by the government with an eye on the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Hussain said however it did not benefit the Congress in the hustings. He said the BJP has already geared itself to expose the UPA government when the Sachar Committee report was taken up for debate in Parliament.

UNI