Business groups fuelling debate on next PM: JDU

New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav on Friday claimed that corporate houses were fuelling the debate on the National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate. Asking the business houses not to indulge in politics, Sharad Yadav said the NDA is yet to discuss its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"This search for the Prime Minister should stop now. This is like doing a research for a nuclear bomb. NDA has never said anything. We've not decided on this. When the time is right, we will announce," said Sharad Yadav.

Yadav went on to add that construction of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was not NDA's agenda and pointed out that the alliance's programmes were different from that of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) even though it was the largest constituent of the NDA.

The JD(U) chief's statement comes even as a section of the BJP and the saffron brigade like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) were voicing their support to project Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Modi's projection has been opposed by the JD(U) with its leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying that only a person with secular credentials should be in the race to become the next prime minister of the country.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday hinted at support to Modi as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, saying, "Everyone is speaking the same thing about who should be the Prime Minister".

Speaking at a gathering of the VHP at the Maha Kumbh in Allahabad, Bhagwat said, "People are thinking here who should be the PM, but it is not our prerogative, it is the prerogative of the party...people know what is in their mind, everyone is saying the same thing."

He further reiterated that those who come to power will have to build the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, even as several VHP saints chanted Narendra Modi-for-Prime Minister slogan.

Earlier, BJP President Rajnath Singh, referring to Modi being backed as the Prime Ministerial candidate at the VHP Dharmsansad, said, "These matters are decided at the parliamentary board of the party."