Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said he had never projected himself as the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) future prime ministerial candidate.
"My stand has always been clear that I am from Gujarat and will keep working for the state," Modi said. He was speaking to the media for the first time after the BJP's poor show in the Lok Sabha elections.
Reacting to Janata Dal-United leader and National Democratic Alliance convenor Sharad Yadav's comment that the projection of Modi as a candidate for the top job was a mistake, the Gujarat chief minister said "Modi as future prime ministerial candidate of the BJP was a media projection only".
Modi, who was the star campaigner of the opposition NDA, said the people wanted the BJP to sit in the opposition and "we accept the verdict with humility".
"In democracy people's verdict is final. This time people have mandated us to sit in the opposition again and the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have been given the mandate to rule," he said.
The BJP leader, however, refused to comment on L.K. Advani's offer of stepping down from the post of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
"Parliamentary board (of the party) will decide. He (Advani) has proposed to resign taking moral responsibility, now the board will decide," he added.
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