New Delhi: BJP is in a damage control mode after the rift in the top brass is out in the open. The Modi-Advani rivalry reached a high pitch when the party selection committee – which Advani boycotted – allotted him the Gandhinagar seat instead of Bhopal, the seat he asked for.
A little before 9 this morning, Narendra Modi visited the residence of senior BJP leader L K Advani, who served the party with its latest crisis last night by refusing to accept its decision that he contest the general elections from Gandhinagar in Gujarat again. He left nearly 40 minutes later.
Advani is the sitting MP from Gandhinagar, a seat he has held for the last 16 years straight, but the BJP’s senior-most leader has made it clear that he wants to contest from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh this time. Advani has reportedly asked senior party leaders who have been trying to bring him around since last night, why he cannot have his choice of seat when the wishes of other top leaders like Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi to contest key constituencies in Uttar Pradesh have been accommodated by the party.Â
Modi’s effort to convince Advani is one of a series of meetings that began on Wednesday night as the party pushed the emergency button after the 87-year-old conveyed his deep displeasure to Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari.Â
The decision to field Advani from Gandhinagar and not Bhopal was taken at a party meeting on Wednesday, where Modi reportedly insisted that Advani must return to his Gujarat seat. Leaders close to Modi have argued that if Advani moves out of Gandhinagar, Modi’s political opponents will attack him over such a senior leader’s discomfiture at contesting from his state.