Ahmedabad: Dispelling reports of rival power centres in Gujarat, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on October 8 backed to the hilt Narendra Modi and asserted that he would be the Chief Minister after Assembly elections in the state.

In the most unequivocal assertion of the party's stand on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership in Gujarat, Advani, addressing a meeting of party workers, endorsed BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu's announcement that Modi would be the Chief Minister after the elections.

"Our party president has announced that BJP will return to power with emphatic majority and Modi will continue to be the Chief Minister," Advani said.

Advani and Naidu made the remarks in the presence of former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and Union Minister Kanshiram Rana who both had talked of elected Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) choosing a new Chief Minister.

Taunting the Opposition parties, which had predicted and demanded President's Rule after October 6, Advani said that Modi was continuing as Chief Minister even six months after the last session of the Assembly.

Advani hit at out Modi's critics describing the state as "Godse's Gujarat" and said that the Gaurav Yatra was undertaken to restore Gujarat's pride after the Godhra carnage and subsequent communal violence which had given the state a bad name.

PTI