L.K. advised to contest from MP
After his failed bid to marginalise Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, BJP patriarch L.K. Advani is being advised to shift his Lok Sabha constituency, Gandhinagar in Gujarat, to a “safe seat” in Madhya Pradesh. Mr Advani has been representing Gandhinangar since 1991 except in 1996 when he chose not to contest after his name figured in the hawala scam.
Mr Advani is feeling threatened with the rise of Mr Modi in the party and had even objected when BJP chief Rajnath Singh decided to promote Mr Modi by including him in the party’s highest decision-making body — parliamentary board — after Mr Modi scored hattrick in Gujarat Assembly polls.
Speculation has been rife that Mr Advani’s supporters are in touch with Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to find him a safe parliamentary seat. Sources disclosed that Mr Advani’s supporters are thinking that the veteran leader should contest either from Indore or Bhopal, considered BJP’s stronghold.
Mr Advani had recently created a controversy when he had ranked Madhya Pradesh’s development model better than Narendra Modi-ruled Gujarat.
The veteran BJP leader had also compared Mr Chouhan to BJP patriarch and former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee.
Mr Advani skipped the just-concluded BJP national executive meeting, where Mr Modi was named as the chairman of the party’s campaign committee for the Lok Sabha polls. It was the first time in the history of BJP that Mr Advani did not attend the conclave as it was known that the party was going to give Mr Modi an important post despite the objection of the Advani camp. While an attempt was made by this camp to delay the announcement, BJP chief Rajnath Singh, the RSS and the Modi camp were of the belief that the Goa national executive was the right occasion for the announcement as it would boost the cadre morale at a time when crucial Assembly polls are also lined up.
While the RSS has been asking Mr Advani to play the role of BJP mentor ever since the saffron party’s debacle in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Mr Advani never gave up on his ambition of becoming the Prime Minister of the country.
Mr Advani’s nationwide anti-corruption “Janchetna Yatra” in 2011 was seen as an attempt to project himself for the top post, which many in the party believe was the onstart of frosty relation between him and Mr Modi.
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