LK Advani's fate in next list; Narendra Modi to contest Ahmedabad East seat too

NEW DELHI: Declaration of candidates for Varanasi and Lucknow, among other seats, may have killed the suspense, but BJP’s next list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections is also likely to lift the veil on party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s second seat and reveal whether party veteran LK Advani will contest from Gandhinagar or take up the offer of shifting to Bhopal.

According to a BJP leader, Narendra Modi will contest from a seat in Gujarat as well and Ahmedabad (East) is the most likely choice though Baroda and Surat were also suggested earlier.

“BJP candidates from these three seats have been winning with impressive margins of 2-3 lakh votes and hence Modi may zero-in on one of them,” a party leader from Gujarat told ET. Advani, who had broadly indicated that he wants to contest from Gandhinagar, has not shown any inclination of moving to another seat.

Bhopal MP Kailash Joshi had announced that he will not fight the polls this time and invited Advani to contest from his seat. BJP has not yet announced a candidate for this seat, which has kept alive talks that Advani may try his luck from this safe seat.

The fifth list of BJP candidates will be declared on March 19 in which Gujarat, Rajasthan will be taken up along with the 22 remaining seats of UP and five seats of Madhya Pradesh. Other pending seats from various states are also likely to be announced after this meeting.

An upbeat Gujarat unit of the BJP has been claiming that the party could win 20-22 of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state as Narendra Modi is the party’s prime ministerial candidate. BJP won 17 seats in 2009.

With the party registering a huge victory in the recent assembly polls in Rajasthan, BJP leaders feel it will do well in the state in the general elections as well. VK Singh is still the favourite for the Ghaziabad seat while Olympian Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore is the likely candidate from Jodhpur.
Veteran leader Jaswant Singh wants to enter the fray from Barmer, but BJP sources said the party surveys do not paint a positive picture about his chances of victory. VK Singh has also shown interest in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, party sources said.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s MP son Dushyant Singh will fight the Jhalawar that he won in 2009. Former Rajya Sabha member Hema Malini is reportedly keen on contesting the Mathura seat in Uttar Pradesh.

She is hopeful of a good show here as she can woo Jat voters with some help from her husband Dharmendra who belongs to the community apart from the sizeable cadre votes in the constituency.

Jagadambika Pal, who defected from Congress recently, will be BJP candidate from Domariyaganj in UP. He is the sitting MP. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who had left BJP in 2009 and won Kaiserganj seat on a SP ticket, is likely to return to his parent party and contest from this seat.