Trouble mounts for BJP: After LK Advani, Jaswant Singh miffed over ticket distribution

NEW DELHI: Even as the issue of LK Advani's candidature from Gandhinagar remained unsolved, BJP on Thursday was faced by yet another opposition to its ticket distribution process, with senior leader Jaswant Singh upset about not being given the Barmer seat.

According to Times Now, Jaswant Singh called up BJP President Rajnath and conveyed his discontent. Singh is believed to have warned the party President that if he is not allowed to contest from Barmer in Rajasthan, he will stand as an independent from the constituency.

Singh's displeasure adds to the trouble that BJP is already facing with LK Advani.

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).