NEW DELHI, Mar 19:
BJP tonight decided to field L K Advani from his Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat, overruling his desire to shift to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh reflecting the tensions between him and Narendra Modi.
Modi, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, himself will contest from a second seat — Vadodara in Gujarat — apart from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
Hectic discussions preceded the decision on Advani at the day-long meeting of the BJP Central Election Committee from which the 86-year-old party patriarch kept away, citing reasons that he did not want to be part of confabulations involving his constituency.
Advani had conveyed to party president Rajnath Singh that he wanted to shift to Bhopal from Gandhinagar which he has represented five times in the Lok Sabha.
It was not clear whether Advani had consented to the party decision. Late night, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari went to his residence in a bid to persuade him to accept Gandhinagar.
Advani had insisted that he should have the right to choose his constituency like many other leaders who have been allocated their preferred seats, sources said.
Ever since the elevation of Modi in the party hierarchy, Advani has been sulking and his desire to shift from Gandhinagar is seen as a reflection of the unease in his relationship with Modi.
At the meeting, Modi is believed to have insisted that Advani should contest again from Gandhinagar, lest a message went that all is not well in the party.
Advani has represented Gandhinagar in the 10th Lok Sabha (1991-96), 12th Lok Sabha (1998-99), 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004), 14th Lok Sabha (2004-09) and the current 15th Lok Sabha (2009-14).
The list of 60 candidates finalised by the party today, yesteryear dreamgirl Hema Mali got a ticket from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh while Olympian medalist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Jaipur (Rural).
Announcing the list of candidates, BJP leader Thawarchand Gehlot refused to answer whether Advani had accepted the decision to field him from Gandhinagar.
“I have told you about the decisions taken,” he kept repeating before winding up the media interaction.
There were also theories doing the rounds that Advani was reluctant to contest from Gandhinagar, either because he feared sabotage or did not want to be seen as being dependent on Modi for victory.
Soon after the CEC meeting, Modi went to RSS headquarters here to meet Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat in a bid to clear the air over Advani’s candidature and seeking his good offices in the matter.
The list finalised by the party today included 21 candidates each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 15 from Uttar Pradesh, three from Bihar, two from Maharashtra and one each from Kerala, Jharkhand, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The party also announced 15 candidates for Odisha Assembly elections and 17 for Arunachal Assembly polls.
The BJP’s list of 67 candidates has 18 sitting MPs and nine women candidates, eight SC and seven ST candidates.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh has been fielded again from his Jhalawar-Baran constituency in the state.
In Rajasthan, sitting MPs Arjun Meghwal has been fielded from Bikaner (SC) seat, Bahadur Koli from Bharatpur (SC) and Devji Patel from Jalore constituency. The party has also fielded former state DGP Harish Meena from Dausa (ST) constituency
Sitting MP from Domariyaganj, Jagdambika Pal, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP today itself was given the party ticket from the seat. His candidature was being opposed by local BJP leaders but the CEC cleared his name.
In Bihar, the party decided to field former minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey from Bakshar. Choubey was vocal against the party’s tie-up with LJP’s Ram Bilas Paswan in the state.
In Gujarat, the party has fielded 10 sitting MPs and two ministers in the Modi cabinet besides four sitting MLAs.
Among the sitting MPs include Haribhai Chaudhary from Banaskantha, Jayashriben Patel from Mehsana, Kiritbhai Solanki from Ahmedabad (West), Viththalbhai Radadiya from Porbander, who came from the Congress and was infamous for his gun- totting act at a toll plaza, Naranbhai Kaththadiya from Amereli, Ramsinh Rathava from Chhota Udaipur (ST), Mansukhbhai Vasav from Bharuch, Darshana Ben Jadosh from Surat and C R Patel from Navsari.
Two ministers in the Modi Cabinet Jaswant sinh Bhabhor have ben fielded from Dahod (ST) and Liladharbhai Vaghela from Patan.
Meanwhile, the BJP leadership tonight tried to placate L K Advani who expressed his displeasure over the party’s decision to field him from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency despite his desire to shift to Bhopal.
Senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari met Advani at his residence and spent about 45 minutes in their bid to persuade the BJP veteran who is reluctant to contest from Gandhinagar and instead wanted to be fielded from Bhopal.
After meeting Advani, both Swaraj and Gadkari went to BJP president Rajnath Singh’s house where they conveyed the party patriarch’s unhappiness over the Central Election Committee’s decision against his wishes.
During their meeting with Rajnath, RSS leader Suresh Soni was also present, sources said.
BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat soon after the CEC meeting ended, to clear the air over Advani’s candidature and use his good offices to resolve the issue.
Advani is understood to have conveyed to the party leadership his desire to exercise his option of selecting a seat for himself, like many other BJP leaders have done.
The BJP patriarch is of the view that just as the party has fielded Modi from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, Arun Jaitley from Punjab and Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, he be fielded along with Swaraj from Madhya Pradesh to help the BJP “maximise the gains” in the area.
He has also questioned the CEC’s decision to accept the proposal from Gujarat to field him from Gandhinagar and not considering a similar proposal from Madhya Pradesh unit of the party to field him from Bhopal.
Advani has made his displeasure clear to the party leadership which is now finding it difficult to prevail over him and put an end to the unseemly controversy over his choice constituency.
The unease between Narendra Modi and L K Advani took a new turn with the BJP patriarch insisting that he would contest from Bhopal and not Gandhinagar in Gujarat which he has represented five times in the Lok Sabha.
The 86-year-old former Deputy Prime Minister conveyed to party chief Rajnath Singh that he should have the right to choose his constituency as most of the other senior party leaders have been allocated their preferred seats.
The issue figured in the meetings of BJP’s Parliamentary Board as well Central Election Committee which were attended by Singh and Modi. Advani skipped both of the meetings.
Advani has said he has no problems in contesting from Gandhinagar as such but was keen on contesting from Bhopal as he considered it a safer seat, the sources said.
His desire to shift from Gandhinagar may be seen as a reflection of the unease in his relationship with Modi.
Advani is not in the best of terms with Modi after he opposed Gujarat Chief Minister’s anointment as BJP’s PM candidate recently.
Sitting Bhopal MP and BJP veteran Kailash Joshi today said he is not keen on contesting from the seat and he had offered the seat to the BJP patriarch. (PTI)
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