Bilaspur, Sep 16 (CNN-IBN): It seems Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch LK Advani is finally on board over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's anointment as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate. After his absence from the BJP's Parliamentary board meeting, Advani on Monday finally broke his silence and appreciated Modi while speaking in Chhattisgarh.
"There was a quest to provide villages with electricity, and it was the dream of Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with Modi. Modi was the first person to provide three villages at the same time with electricity," Advani said while dedicating a power plant in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
"Narendra Modi has provided electricity to several villages in his state. The decision of the BJP to make him the PM nominee is a great one. He will do excellent work as PM," he added.
"It was BJP government under Vajpayee that I was given the responsibility to make this Chhattisgarh state. We worked not for mere vote bank politics, we worked honestly for the people," Advani also said.
This comes after days of Advani's conspicuous silence on Modi's anointment as BJP's PM candidate. On Sunday too, Modi and Advani attended sacked BJP leader and eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani's 90th birthday celebrations. The celebration took place at Jethmalani's Delhi residence and he was seen sitting between Advani and Modi.
It was seen as an effort to placate the sulking leader as Advani opposed the BJP's decision on Modi's candidature and even skipped the party's Parliamentary Board meeting on Friday. Even when the BJP has supported Modi's candidature and its allies endorsed the decision, the party patriarch had remained defaint.
Many senior party leaders met Advani in order to convince him. Party President Rajanth Singh also held a series of meetings with him in order to garner support for Modi's candidature.
On the other hand, Advani had conveyed to Rajnath and Sushma Swaraj that if the party goes ahead with the decision, then he will lose interest in the working of the party.
What turned out to be an embarrassment for the party was the letter written by Advani to Rajnath and was made public minutes after Modi was anointed. He wrote, "I had expressed my pain to you and I am disappointed at the way you are running the party."