After nearly 24 hours of high drama, BJP patriarch L.K. Advani finally relented and toed Narendra Modi’s line by agreeing to contest from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat. The BJP parliamentary board had made it clear on Wednesday that Mr Advani would contest from Gandhinagar and not Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.
After putting his party through a wringer and sending a signal that unlike leaders like Dr Murli Manohar Joshi he was not going to be dictated to by the party, the sulking BJP patriarch managed to get his way to “choose” his own seat.
In a statement Thursday evening, Mr Advani said: “After consulting all colleagues in the parliamentary board and the central election committee of the party, it has been agreed that the choice between the two seats should be left to me.” He added he was “deeply touched by this gesture of my party colleagues. I had some weeks ago said I would be contesting the parliamentary election from Gandhinagar itself.” Sources said Mr Advani was also annoyed over some sitting MPs in Gujarat who are considered close to him not being renominated by the party.
If Mr Advani’s tantrums moved the BJP to take swift damage-control action, another old warhorse Jaswant Singh is miffed and complaining. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundahara Raje has opposed Mr Singh’s proposed candidature from Barmer. Mr Singh has now threatened to contest as an Independent candidate from Barmer if the party denied him a ticket from that seat.
On Mr Advani, sources said that RSS general secretary Bhayaji Joshi, who spoke to Mr Advani on Wednesday night, made it clear that while the party had decided to nominate him from Gandhinagar, it was up to the veteran leader to take a call. But the real turnaround came after BJP president Rajnath Singh announced on Thursday that Mr Advani was free to “choose his own seat”. In a statement from Chennai, the party chief said: “It is the unanimous view of the party that the choice of where to contest from should be left to Shri Advaniji himself... The party will respect the opinion of Advaniji with regard to his choice of constituency for contesting the election.” Mr Singh also spoke to Mr Advani.
On Thursday, the party’s top leaders queued up at Mr Advani’s Prithviraj Road residence to placate him. The first to arrive was PM candidate Narendra Modi. Mr Advani said in a statement that Mr Modi “emphasised that the people of Gujarat are keen that I represent Gandhinagar (in the) Lok Sabha once again.” Mr Advani added that the BJP chief conveyed to him the “desire of the Gujarat unit of the BJP and the decision of the election committee yesterday that I should contest the parliamentary election from Gandhinagar”.
Keeping the party on tenterhooks for a day, Mr Advani said: “I have been integrally connected with Gujarat since migrating from Karachi in 1947. I have represented the state both in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Having represented Gandhinagar constituency in the Lok Sabha since 1991, I have decided to contest the 2014 general election from Gandhinagar itself.” He also expressed his gratitude to a host of Madhya Pradesh leaders, including chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, “for proposing my name from Bhopal”. Senior leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and M. Venkaiah Naidu also met Mr Advani here on Thursday morning to soothe his frayed nerves.
In Rajasthan, chief minister Vasundhara Raje is rooting for the Barmer BJP ticket to be given to Col. Sona Ram, who joined the saffron fold a few days back from the Congress. She believes that being a jat, this will give the party an edge in the jat-dominated constituency. Jaswant Singh, on the other hand, believes that “he has a better chance with the support of Muslims, who (comprise) 14 per cent in the region. They had helped his son Manvendra Singh in defeating Sona Ram by a record 3.5 lakh votes in 2004,” said a senior Rajasthan BJP leader.