Former Union Minister and Ambala MLA Venod Sharma, who had quit the Congress, on Sunday described BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as a man with a vision, who wanted to take the country forward on the road to development and economic progress.
Speaking in Kurukshetra, Sharma offered his unstinted support to any party, organisation or individual that contributed to the ongoing campaign to secure the top job for the Gujarat strongman, who was hailed for his role in putting his home state on the path to progress.“Modi has got the vision, he wants to take the country forward and in this he is getting love and support from the people of the country,” he said.
Reacting to the reports that he was now planning to join the BSP after Sushma Swaraj had opposed his entry into the Haryana Janhit Congress-- a BJP ally-- Sharma said, “I want to say that for sometime there have been speculation in the media. I want to state that I neither denied nor confirmed these. I told my friends in the media to wait as I will reveal my plans today(on Sunday). I want to state that I had and still have close relations with former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s family. When you are in politics, it does not mean that social ties should be severed as politics does not determine your social relations.”
Referring to Modi’s meteoric rise in the BJP, Sharma said it would not have been possible for a person with such humble origins to rise to such dizzying heights in the Congress. Without taking names, Sharma said he felt ashamed when people in high posts passed sarcastic comments on Modi’s humble origins.
Taking on his detractors within the Congress, he said that a few people were trying to control the party. He had resigned after remaining a Congressman for some four decades. He said he had forwarded his resignation to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi as he was deeply upset with several organisational matters, including the absence of inner party democracy.
Sharma said he had been eyeing a Rajya Sabha berth but was left out when former Union Minister Kumari Selja’s name was announced by the Congress. And he said the Congress today is faced with a situation, where its leaders don’t want to face the electorate.
“Selja says she does not want to contest, Sonipat MP Jitender Malik says he does not want to contest and even the former HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana says he does not want to fight,” he said.