Senior Trinamul Congress leader Kunal Ghosh on Friday wondered if politics played any role behind the Narendra Modi government’s decision to confer 'Bharat Ratna' on former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.

Ghosh, however, said the party will officially react to the announcements later on.

Besides Rao, ex-prime minister Charan Singh and Green Revolution pioneer M S Swaminathan will be conferred with the Bharat Ratna, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday.

The government had earlier named former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, a champion of backward empowerment, and L K Advani, a founding BJP member credited with charting the course of its rise through the 1990s, for the country's highest civilian honour.

Asked by PTI to react to the development, Ghosh said, "Both (Rao and Singh) were prime ministers and they have been honoured with Bharat Ratna." Ghosh, the TMC spokesperson, said he should not comment against this, but he was struck by the thought that politics might have played a role in honouring with Bharat Ratna to Rao.

He, however, hastened to add that this is his immediate reaction, and the party will come up with an official response later.

"There were differences between Rao and the Gandhi family when he was the prime minister during 1991-96. Is Modi-ji trying to focus on this difference?" Ghosh said.

Four of the five Bharat Ratna awards this year are posthumous. Advani, 96, is the only one alive.

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