Ahmedabad, Jan 17 (IANS) Days after he hogged the limelight with India's top industrialists calling him prime minister material, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Saturday said he was not in the race for the top post and that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s senior leader L.K. Advani was the right candidate.
'I am not in any race. Just the way Gujarat has progressed, India will develop under the able leadership of L.K. Advani,' Modi said, speaking at a function.
The right candidate for the prime minister's post, Modi said, is Advani. In the upcoming parliamentary elections, the BJP would come to power and Advani would lead the country to progress, he said.
Modi was addressing a conference at central Gujarat's Halol town, about 160 km from here, where he laid the foundation stone for the widening of a highway.
Modi said he was successful in inviting investment worth Rs.12 trillion for the prosperity of his state that has the potential of generating 2.5 million jobs.
'Some vested interests are spreading the canard that Modi wants to become the next prime minister of India. I am only a chief minister and I am content with that,' Modi said, laying to rest speculation that he was a contender for the country's top job.
Top industrialists Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharati Mittal had Wednesday said that Modi, who courted controversy when over 1,000 people were killed in communal riots in the state in 2002, had the makings of a prime minister. Speaking at an annual investors' summit organised by the state government, the industrialists credited Modi for the development works in Gujarat.
Modi also laid the foundation stone for Shymalaji port which is to be built at a cost of Rs.8.05 billion.
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