LK Advani is my role model in integrity, uprightness: Parrikar

Panaji: Senior BJP leader and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday claimed that LK Advani has been his role model for "integrity and uprightness" and media has been wrongly pitting him against the party veteran.

"I personally feel that Advaniji should continue giving us blessings and guiding the party even after NDA gets in power. He has a very high morale. My role model is Advaniji in integrity and uprightness," Parrikar told a group of reporters at Porvorim, near Panaji.

Parrikar said that he has been unnecessarily pitted against Advani by media by twisting the statements.

"When I made a statement about retirement age of politicians, my statement was twisted. One should sit with cool mind and listen to my entire interview, before jumping to conclusion," he said, referring to his recent interview to a national channel.

He insisted that Advani should not withdraw himself from the position that he is on right now.

"He is on a top most position. He should not withdraw from there," Parrikar said.

Advani had on Monday resigned from all party posts.

The Chief Minister said that he wants Advani to reconsider his decision. When asked whether he would persuade him to withdraw resignation, Parrikar said, "I am too small a leader for that job. Whatever leaders in Delhi had to do, they have done."

He also refused to comment on the resignation episode saying that "he can't talk about a person who is two-three ladders above him in the party".

Parrikar had courted controversy twice earlier, once when he described Advani as "rancid pickle," and the second count when he had said that the politician once he touches 65 years of age, should retire from politics.

"My comments (about retirement) were in general. I mean to say that the electoral person who is in public life should take review of his health when he is 65," he clarified.

Meanwhile, BJP's Goa unit on Tuesday said that it had still not decided on requesting senior leader L K Advani to withdraw his resignations as their plea might not have any value.

"We have not yet discussed it. We will have to see whether it would be appropriate for us to write such a letter and whether it (letter) will have any value," party's Goa spokesman Dr Wilfred Mesquita told reporters in Panaji today.

He was responding to a question whether BJP Goa unit will communicate to Advani to reconsider his decision.

"We are too small... Senior leaders in Delhi have already requested him to withdraw his resignations," Mesquita said.