Thiruvananthapuram, Saturday 9 May 2009: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi here today said that Manmohan Singh was not the common choice of UPA and also some Congress leaders for the post of Prime Minister.

“Senior leaders of the Congress like Arjun Singh have not even mentioned the name of Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. Only Sonia Gandhi has said that he is their PM candidate. Leading partners in the UPA have also not said anything on Manmohan Singh becoming the Prime Minister,” Modi said.

The Gujarat CM, who had a brief stop-over at the airport here on his way to campaign in Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency, told reporters that this was in sharp contrast with the situation in BJP, where L K Advani was the unanimous choice of the entire NDA for post of PM.

Asked about prospects of the Third Front, he mockingly replied, “one does not know who is the owner of the Third Front, which all parties are there and what their agenda is.”