Jakarta – The leadership of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party has said that it is not perturbed by the growing popularity of Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

Gerindra Deputy Chairman Edhy Prabowo claimed that Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto, the party's chief patron, could easily outdo Jokowi in next year's presidential election. Edhy said that Jokowi was in fact Prabowo's pupil.

"If Jokowi is doing great right now it is because of Prabowo. He was the teacher. If he [Jokowi] is a star student, there must be a great teacher behind him," Edhy said as quoted by kompas.com over the weekend.

He also said that neither Gerindra nor Prabowo had any regrets about bringing Jokowi to Jakarta and supporting him in the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election.

"It was not a wrong decision. No other parties wanted to support him, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle," Edhy said.