The Newshour Direct: Sushil Kumar Modi

Senior BJP leader and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi speaks with TIMES NOW's Anand Narasimhan and Sanket Upadhyay, on his tweets about LK Advani and Narendra Modi. Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday (September 12) pitched for Narendra Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, saying L K Advani has failed to gauge public mood, but hours later praised him for developing second line of leadership within the party. Amid reports that Advani is standing in the way of the Gujarat Chief Minister being named as BJP's candidate for the top post, Sushil Modi tweeted that, "Advaniji has failed to gauge the public mood". "Advaniji himself declared Atalji as PM candidate now also he could have done the same for NaMo," he said. Later, talking to media persons, the senior Bihar BJP leader said it seems that Advani did not realise that public mood was in favour of Modi. The country's mood was to see Modi against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in the 2014 elections, he said. But, with his comments seen as "disrespect" towards Advani, he praised him in two fresh tweets for developing a second line of leadership within the party.