Narendra Modi today showered praise on party veteran L K Advani, who is in electoral fray from here, describing him as a "guiding figure" who has built the party with hard work and asked party men to ensure his victory by a huge margin.
"He (Advani) has built the party with his hard work, he has taught four generations of the BJP workers to live and die for the party. Thousands of party workers are blessed to have a guiding figure like him," Modi said addressing party workers shortly before Advani filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha poll from Gandhinagar constituency.
Relations between Modi and Advani had come under strain after the BJP patriarch had initially been miffed over not being allowed by the party to shift from Gandhinagar and contest for Bhopal seat. Advani had also opposed Modi's anointment as the party's PM candidate.
He said he had always been fortunate to receive Advani's guidance in his political journey. "It is our privilege to serve Advani-ji when he is contesting from Gandhinagar. Party workers have to ensure victory of Advani-ji by a huge margin from Gandhinagar," Modi said and later accompanied the patriarch to the election authority for nomination-filing.
Asking cadres to work for Advani's victory, he asked them to focus on each and every booth. "I will rather be happiest if we win at every polling booth," he said.
Modi claimed Congress would not reach a double-digit tally in any of the states in Lok Sabha elections this time.
"This would be perhaps the first election after the independence, the first instance of post-independence era, when not a single candidate of Congress party would be elected from some states," Modi said.
"There won't be a single region or the state where Congress will be able to reach double digit. They will not get even ten seats in any of the states," he predicted.
Congress will face its biggest rout since the emergency, Modi claimed, adding this time "people have decided the verdict in advance".
