Lok Sabha polls: ‘Advani for PM’ poster appears in Chhattisgarh

NEW DELHI: Pamphlets endorsing senior BJP leader LK Advani as the party’s prime ministerial candidate made a mysterious appearance at Narendra Modi’s rallies in Chhattisgarh on Sunday, indicating that a faction was determined to keep embarrassing the official nominee Modi by pitting the party patriarch against him.

Modi was in Chhattisgarh to address three back-to-back rallies in Bhilai, Bilaspur and Ambikapur when party workers told him that the pamphlets were being distributed in Durg and parts of Bilaspur parliamentary constituencies in a door-to-door campaign along with the voter’s slip.

“Advani ne diya Chhattisgarh raaj, ab unhe dein pradhan mantra ka taaj (roughly meaning Advani gifted BJP’s rule in Chhattisgarh, now crown him prime minister)” said the pamphlets, which carried pictures of Advani, chief minister Raman Singh and Durg candidate Saroj Pandey, who is also the president of BJP’s Mahila Morcha.

Raman Singh has often been equated with Modi and his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan by Advani, who had earlier opposed Modi’s ascension as PM candidate, arguing that Singh and Chouhan had similar credentials of development and had led the BJP to victory three times in a row in their states.

Saroj Pandey confirmed to ET that Modi was unhappy about the distribution of pamphlets. Modi made a mention of the “fake pamphlets” in his speech at Bhilai (falling in Durg constituency), calling it a Congress conspiracy.

He urged people not to believe the contents of the pamphlet and insisted that all decisions in BJP were taken after a lot of consideration and he was proud of being chosen as the party’s Prime Minesterial candidate. Pandey, however, said she was certain that some of the BJP’s local leaders were also involved in the mischief.

“I can’t name them but I know who is doing it,” she said.