Rajnath Singh puts onus on LK Advani; says final decision on Lok Sabha seat lies with the patriarch

NEW DELHI: Putting the onus on LK Advani, BJP President Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that it was up to the patriarch to choose the seat he wants to contest Lok Sabha polls from.

"We have got a proposal from Madhya Pradesh for Advani to contest from Bhopal. It is his choice," Rajnath Singh said. "It is for Advani to choose his Lok Sabha seat whether it is GandhiNagar or Bhopal," he added.

He also rubbished the opinion that Advani was being sidelined in BJP. "The CEC has taken the decision for Advani's seat. But the final decision lies with him," he reiterated.

Earlier in the day BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley met Advani separately to convince the latter to fight from the seat chosen for him for the Lok Sabha polls.

Rumblings in BJP came to the fore last night as the party decided to field Advani from Gandhinagar for Lok Sabha polls, angering the patriarch who wanted to shift to Bhopal in a reflection of his tensions with Narendra Modi.

After hectic deliberations in the party's Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee meetings, BJP announced Advani's candidature from Gandhinagar, brushing aside his desire to shift out of Gujarat.

Advani had conveyed to Rajnath Singh that he wanted to shift to Bhopal from Gandhinagar as he too should have the right to choose his constituency like many other leaders who have been allocated their preferred seats, sources said.

Gujarat chief minister Modi prevailed upon the party to keep an absent and sulking Advani from moving out of the constituency in Gujarat that he has represented five times, arguing that this would gift the opposition a campaign issue.

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).