BJP brainstorms over Modi & Advani's seats, final decision soon

NEW DELHI: With the BJP's Central Election Committee meeting underway, suspense over the Lok Sabha seats of LK Advani and Narendra Modi continued on Wednesday. The party parliamentary board is brainstorming on the same and will take the final call on this soon.


There are indications that the party veteran LK Advani may move out from Gandhinagar to Bhopal, while prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi could contest the Vadodara seat instead of Ahmedabad (East).

Sitting BJP MP from Vadodara Lok Sabha seat, Balkrishna Shukla has said he would be happy to vacate the seat for Narendra Modi, if the party decides to field him from the constituency.

"Modi is my political guru. He had encouraged me to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls when I was still the city mayor. I am very happy to vacate my seat for him. I have already communicated my willingness to the party leadership," Shukla said.

The MP expressed confidence that Modi would win the seat with a thumping majority. "It would be a proud moment for Vadodara to elect the prime ministerial candidate," he said.

Meanwhile, there have been concerns in the Advani camp that though he would win from Gandhinagar, the victory margin may not be high as Modi's acolytes are not very enthusiastic about his candidature.

With Bhopal sitting MP Kailash Joshi announcing earlier this month that he would not contest this time, the seat - considered a BJP bastion - was there for the asking for Advani. Joshi had also invited Advani to contest from Bhopal. There are also indications now that Modi may opt for Vadodara instead of Ahmedabad East as his second seat. The party has said Modi would contest a seat from Gujarat, and all pointers have been towards the BJP bastion of Ahmedabad East held by Harin Pathak, who is not in the good books of the chief minister.