Amit Shah replaces LK Advani to contest from Gandhinagar as BJP releases first list

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Targetting the BJP for this decision which virtually indicates that party stalwart LK Advani's political career is over, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “When Modiji does not respect older ones, how will he respect the public faith?”

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: BJP president Amit Shah has replaced veteran party leader LK Advani to contest the General Elections from Gandhinagar in his home town Gujarat. (PTI)

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: BJP president Amit Shah has replaced veteran party leader LK Advani to contest the General Elections from Gandhinagar in his home town Gujarat. Shah is being fielded from LK Advani seat, where the veteran leader is the sitting lawmaker. Notably, Advani is not on the first list of candidates that was released today by the party. Targetting the BJP for this decision which virtually indicates that party stalwart LK Advani's political career is over, the Congress alleged that first the party veteran was "forcefully" sent to the 'margdarshak mandal' and now his parliamentary constituency has been snatched away. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took to Twitter and said, “When Modiji does not respect older ones, how will he respect the public faith?”

पहले श्री लाल कृष्ण अडवाणी को ज़बरन ‘मार्ग दर्शक’ मंडल में भेज दिया,

अब उनकी संसदीय सीट भी छीन ली। जब मोदीजी बुज़ुर्गों का आदर नहीं करते, वह जनता के विश्वास का आदर कहाँ करेंगे? भाजपा भगाओ, देश बचाओ।#bjpfirstlist — Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 21, 2019

Meanwhile, BJP fielded Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi constituency as it announced its first list of 184 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Senior party leader J P Nadda told a press conference that the party also decided to field Home Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and another Union minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur. Both leaders had won from these seats in the last general election. Union Minister Smriti Irani has been renominated from Amethi and will take on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Union minister Kiren Rijiju to fight from Arunachal East. The BJP has also renominated Union ministers V K Singh and Mahesh Sharma from Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida), respectively. The BJP announced its candidates from many states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. The BJP has finalised names of all 17 party candidates from Bihar and sent the list to the state unit which will announce it jointly with allies, Nadda said. Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23. The polling will be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19 for 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country in which nearly 90 crore voters would be eligible to vote.