The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab Sunday welcomed the appointment of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the chief of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) poll campaign committee for the 2014 general election.
Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, while welcoming the move on Modi, said that "this announcement would mark the beginning of decimation of corrupt, inefficient and insensitive UPA-II government from the centre".
Modi was announced as the poll panel chairman by the BJP national president Rajnath Singh at the end of the BJP's three-day national executive in Goa.
Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani did not attend the meeting due to "ill-health", fuelling speculations of a rift among top BJP leaders over the elevation of Modi to the national scene.
In a statement, Badal said: "The people of the country were looking towards the National Democratic Alliance to save the country from the clutches of most corrupt UPA government."
"The appointment of Mr. Narendra Modi as chairman of poll campaign committee of BJP, the biggest member of the NDA, would be catalytic in the NDA's victory march in 2014 elections," he said.
"Mr. Modi has shown his capability and calibre in successful poll campaigns of Gujarat and we should utilise his services to effectively chalk out the NDA's campaign and projecting the failures of UPA-II," said Badal, who is Punjab deputy chief minister.
He said that the "Shiromani Akali Dal has remained an inseparable part of the NDA and would continue to support the BJP in all its moves and decisions to oust Congress party from power".
The Akali Dal and the BJP have an alliance government in Punjab since 2007. Both parties have been in alliance for nearly three decades in the state.
