MP is No. 1 state,says Chouhan,party ignores Modi at campaign launch

Also,in a political indication of sorts,hoardings and banners at the launch of the yatra featured the partys national leaders such as Atal Behari Vajpayee,L K Advani,Sushma Swaraj,Rajnath Singh and Anant Kumar,along with some state leaders. But missing noticeably was Chouhans Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi,recently named the partys 2014 poll campaign panel chief and touted as its prime ministerial candidate.

The party struggled to cohesively explain Modis absence and called it the medias way of creating conflict when there was none. It indicated Modi would be part of the national leadership and attend the September 25 workers gathering in Bhopal that would mark the yatras culmination.

Addressing the first public meeting as part of the rally that will crisscross 224 Assembly constituencies,Chouhan asked workers to think of him and the lotus and not about Assembly tickets.

8220;I want your vote and money,8221; he said,appealing for donations to the election fund,which he said could be as little as Rs 10.

Accusing the Congress of leveling trivial charges against him,Chouhan said the opposition party had taken to dirty politics and was paying heed to the advice from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to only target and defame him.

Even Lord Rama was married, he said,hitting at opposition leader Ajay Singh,who had alleged that Chouhan had broken his vow to remain unmarried after meeting Sadhna Singh.