Ahmedabad, March 27 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Pary’s (BJP) prime ministerial aspirant L.K. Advani Friday reiterated his call to Manmohan Singh to contest the Lok Sabha polls instead of becoming prime minister as a Rajya Sabha member.
“Manmohan Singh should fight from a Lok Sabha seat to be elected as prime minister instead of the Rajya Sabha,” Advani said here, kicking off his party’s poll campaign in Gujarat.

He had said the same thing while addressing an election rally in Seppa in Arunachal Pradesh Thursday: “Singh will be more acceptable to the people of India if he decides to fight the elections and go to the Lok Sabha.” Manmohan Singh is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam.

Taking a dig at the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Advani said: “I don’t call the UPA as Manmohan Singh government, it is Sonia Gandhi’s (Congress president) government.”

On his challenging Manmohan Singh to a TV debate ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Advani said: “I had very good relations with Dr Manmohan Singh when he was not the prime minister. But now I pity him as he is the prime minister.”

He also charged the Congress with not revealing who is the captain of its team.

“The Congress is not revealing who is the captain of its team. Manmohan Singh is the most inactive prime minister.”

He said the Congress-led UPA now stands isolated with its allies deserting it.

The BJP kicked off its poll campaign at the Kankaria football ground here.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the campaign, said the two major market scams of the country had broken out when Manmohan Singh was in the government. “During the Harshad Mehta scam in 1994 Manmohan Singh was finance minister, and now when the Satyam scam broke out, he is the prime minister. This is very unfortunate.”