Qalibaf's Comparisons

I hadn't heard this before: According to Meir Javedanfar, Muhammad Baqir Qalibaf, considered one of Ahmadinejad's most formidable rivals in the 2009 presidential election, was hurt in 2005 because he compared himself to Reza Shah:

"He already tried his luck in 2005 as a candidate, but failed to win. Winning 14% of the votes, he came in 5th. One of the reasons is because he described himself as an Islamic version of Reza Shah. Some Iranians have nostalgic feelings for the founder for the Pahlavi dynasty, and the father of Shah. The biggest reason is because he was a nationalist, and that he was a developer. He developed Iran’s roads, railways and telecommunication system. Also he was a no none sense man. He didn’t let bureaucracy (or democracy for that matter) get in his plans to develop Iran and to try and make it in to a modern country. In short, Iranians like Reza Shah, because he was a man of talk and action."