New Delhi, Jun 2 (PTI): Congress today poked fun at BJP saying there was a "civil war" in the Opposition party over the issue of its prime ministerial candidate after L K Advani showered lavish praise on Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan vis-a-vis Narendra Modi.

"BJP story by Advani ji. Chauhan ji verus Modi versus Rajnath ji versus Sushma ji versus Jaitley ji versus Gadkari ji. RSS versus BJP ji-Civil War in Pariwar ji," Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari tweeted today.

His comments came a day after Advani appeared to pay left-handed compliments to Narendra Modi when he said that while Modi had made a "healthy" Gujarat into an "excellent" state, Chouhan turned around Madhya Pradesh, once called a BIMARU state.

"Atal Bihari Vajpayee implemented several developmental schemes including road network but he always remained very humble and far away from arrogance. Similarly, Chouhan has also formulated a large number of development and welfare schemes like Ladli Laxmi scheme and Mukya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojna and implemented them successfully. Despite so many achievements, Chouhan never had any ego. I found Chouhan very humble, like Vajpayee," Advani had told BJP's booth-level coordinators here yesterday.

He said Gujarat was already a "healthy" state and Modi transformed it into an "excellent" state but what Chouhan and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh did was successfully turning around BIMARU states into developed ones.

"I tell Narendrabhai Modi that Gujarat was healthy earlier also. You have made it excellent and you deserve congratulations for that. But what Chouhan and his Chhattisgarh Chief Minister did was wonderful," Advani had said. PTI AMR SMI 06021727

Commenting on Advani's remarks, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed tweeted: "People say, by rating Chouhan above Modi, L K Advani is looking for a safe seat in MP, but I think he will contest from a seat in Bihar."

Ahmed is a senior party leader from Bihar and has been maintaining that the perceived differences between BJP and JD-U over Narenrda Modi's projection was a deliberate strategy to push Advani in the front seat at a time there appeared to be a race for the Prime Ministerial candidate within the BJP ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections. He had said in past that Nitish Kumar and Advani have an understanding.