Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate on Thursday met senior party leader LK Advani, who is sulking over being fielded from Gandhinagar in Lok Sabha elections as he wanted to shift to Bhopal.
Mr. Modi went to his residence and was there for about half-an-hour apparently to persuade him to contest from Gandhinagar, which he has represented for five times in Lok Sabha.
The BJP’s parliamentary board and the central election committee, the two top decision making bodies of the party had on Wednesday decided to field Mr. Advani from Gandhinagar and not from Bhopal as desired by him.
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Though it is not clear as to what transpired at the meeting, sources said Mr. Advani is very particular in contesting from Bhopal, saying that he be given a chance to exercise his option to select his seat just as other top party leaders like Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Mr. Modi.
The 86-year old party patriarch had conveyed his displeasure to party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari, who met him on Wednesday night.
The two leaders then met Mr. Singh to convey Mr. Advani’s views.
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On Wednesday night, Mr. Modi met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, apparently to seek his intervention in resolving the issue.
Mr. 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).