Gujarat BJP wants Advani to contest from Gandhinagar, Modi`s second seat still undecided

BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Gandhinagar constituencies, according to Gujarat unit of the party on Tuesday.

Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava

New Delhi: Gujarat unit of BJP said on Tuesday that veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Gandhinagar constituencies. Addressing a press briefing, Gujarat BJP unit spokesman Vijay Rupani said, “The state unit has approved LK Advani`s name from the Gandhinagar constituency and will send its recommendation to the party office in Delhi.” Rupani further said that the state unit wants Narendra Modi to contest Lok Sabha polls from Gujarat although he is also contesting from Varanasi. However, Advani himself did not comment on the matter today. As per sources, Advani will decide tomorrow as to whether he will fight from Gandhinagar constituency which he presently represents or Bhopal. After careful deliberations, the party had recently declared Modi and Rajnath Singh`s name for the Varanasi and Lucknow constituencies respectively. BJP`s next list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections is also likely to lift the veil on party`s prime ministerial candidate Modi`s second seat. According to Gujarat BJP sources, Modi is most likely to contest from the Ahmedabad (East), though Baroda and Surat are also being discussed. 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.