DHAKA: India’s Hindu nationalist party scrambled on Saturday to win support from the movement’s most senior leader over a decision to appoint controversial politician Narendra Modi as candidate for premier in looming elections.

Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including lower parliamentary house chief Sushma Swaraj, visited 85-year-old BJP co-founder LK Advani at his New Delhi home.

But they failed to smooth over differences with Advani, who had written to the BJP earlier in the week to say he was ‘anguished and disappointed’ about developments in the party, reports The Straits Times.

Advani boycotted Friday’s ceremony at which Gujarat state chief minister Modi, his one-time protoge, was nominated to be the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in polls due by 2014.

BDST: 2037 HRS, SEPT 14, 2013
RoR/RIS