Amit Shah meets aggrieved BJP veterans MM Joshi, LK Advani

Opposition parties have launched a broadside against the BJP leadership for having neglected its veterans including Shatrughan Sinha who quit after being associated with the party for nearly three decades. He joined the Congress and cited examples of Joshi and Advani to show the saffron party was treating and neglecting its guardians.

FILE PIC: AFP

New Delhi:  BJP president Amit Shah on Monday evening met party veterans Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani who were denied poll tickets. Joshi has been replaced by Satyadev Pachauri in Kanpur while the BJP has fielded Shah from Gujarat's Gandhinagar, a seat represented by Advani for several years. Joshi had issued a statement saying the BJP told him that he would not be nominated by the party in Kanpur. While Advani has not said anything about being dropped from the party's list of Lok Sabha candidates, he expressed his sentiments in a blog asserting his party never regarded those who disagreed with it politically as "anti-national". The two leaders were were sidelined after 2014 general elections, in which the BJP got clear majority under the leadership of Narendra Modi. After easing them out of key organisational positions, the party leadership brought the curtains down on their electoral innings by not giving them tickets to contest the Lok Sabha polls this time, reported PTI. The BJP had earlier announced that it will not give tickets to those above 75 years of age. ALSO READ: "Only PM Modi's jacket new": Shatrughan Sinha's jab at BJP manifesto  Opposition parties have launched a broadside against the BJP leadership for having neglecting its veterans including Shatrughan Sinha who quit after being associated with the party for nearly three decades. He joined the Congress and cited examples of Joshi and Advani to show the saffron party was treating and neglecting its guardians. Last week, Joshi had called on Advani and the two leaders, who have both been denied election tickets, talked for over an hour. Some say a salvo against the Modi-Shah regime is expected from Joshi too.