Manohar Parrikar rubbishes PM candidate reports

Panaji, Jan 16: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday rubbished media reports which quoted him saying that he was ready to consider becoming Prime Ministerial candidate if his party asks him.

"It is an outrage that a quote was manufactured on my behalf with the malicious intent to create a controversy viz a viz the PM nominee of the BJP," he said in a statement.

The BJP leader said at a press conference earlier in the day, he had just maintained that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had no business to tell his party who should be its candidate for the top post. Parrikar said it was for the BJP to decide its Prime Ministerial nominee and the party has made the choice in favour of Narendra Modi.

He said the BJP Goa unit was committed to winning the two Lok Sabha seats in the state to ensure victory for the party under the leadership of Modi.

On Monday, AAP National Executive member Dinesh Vaghela had said here that BJP should drop Modi and project Parrikar as its Prime Ministerial candidate. Vaghela had termed BJP's choice of Modi as a "mistake".

PTI