Denying any challenge to its senior leader L K Advani’s candidature as party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, BJP today said that Modi “stands like a rock” behind Advani.

“Advaniji is the prime ministerial candidate of the party and the NDA and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi stands like a rock behind him,” party general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters here.

The praise by two leading industrialists Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership suggesting he could be the Prime Minister created a flutter in political circles early this week.

“The comments of the industrialists is the vindication of the unequivocal stand of the party that our Chief Ministers are best when it comes to performance,” Jaitley added.

When asked why has Modi not denied the comments and not expressed his support for Advani publicly, he said,”clarifications are not a necessity in every case.”

At the valedictory session of the Fourth Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit in Ahmedabad yesterday, Ambani said” Narendrabhai has done good for Gujarat and what will happen if he leads the nation.”

The remarks by Ambani and Mittal drew contrasting reaction from Congress which compared them to German industrial honchos of the Nazi regime and BJP which projected them as vindication of its “quality” leaderships in states.