Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi has stayed away conspicuously from campaigning for his
party in the poll-bound Uttarakhand and Punjab.
Assembly elections will be held in both the states on
January 30, and the campaigning ended yesterday. Modi did not
visit the two states during this period.
Modi, dubbed by some in BJP as prime ministerial
material, was supposed to be one of the main campaigners in
the five states where the assembly polls would be held.
But his absence in Punjab and Uttarakhand, the two states
where BJP is in power, has led to speculation about whether he
would hit the campaign trail in the all-important Uttar
Pradesh.
His bete noire and former BJP General Secretary Sanjay
Joshi is one of the key leaders involved in the party's UP
campaign.
Modi had stayed away from the last BJP National Executive
reportedly because he was sulking over BJP president Nitin
Gadkari's decision to bring back Joshi into the party.
Modi was also said to be unhappy with senior leader LK
Advani for kicking off his anti-corruption yatra from Bihar
instead of Gujarat.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, January 29, 2012, 15:20