Lok Sabha elections: Congress hits out at BJP for giving party veteran Advani's Gandhinagar seat to Shah

The party instead chose to field its president Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, the seat held by Advani so far.

Left: Surjewala, Right: Advani/ All images: PTI

New Delhi Exclusion of Bharatiya Janta Party veteran LK Advani’s name from party’s first list of 184 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections gave Congress a reason to take on the party. Hitting out at BJP, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Thursday said “First LK Advani was forcefully sent to Marg Darshan Mandal, and now his parliamentary seat has also been snatched.” “When Modiji doesn’t respect elderly, how will he respect the belief of the people. Make BJP go, and save the nation” he added. It appeared to be the end of road in electoral politics for BJP veteran Advani, as his name did not figure in the first list of party candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party instead chose to field its president Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, the seat held by Advani so far. Naranpura, from where Shah had won the Assembly election in 2012 before he became Rajya Sabha member, is located in Ahmedabad city, but falls in Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. The BJP's state unit had demanded that either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Shah should contest Lok Sabha election from the state this time. State BJP leaders had also demanded that Shah contest from Gandhinagar, a BJP bastion. The BJP had sent observers on March 16 to seek opinion of party workers and leaders in Gandhinagar, and most of them favoured Shah, party observer Nimaben Acharya had said. Workers felt that as the seat had been held by a national leader (Advani), someone among the party's central leadership should contest from there, another party observer Prithviraj Patel had said. "Neither has the party approached him nor has he approached the party so far," Advani's personal secretary Deepak Chopra told PTI when asked if the BJP had urged Advani to contest from Gandhinagar yet again. Advani, 91, who has served as Union home minister and deputy prime minister, has won from Gandhinagar six times. Credited for orchestrating the BJP's rise to a pre-eminent position in the late 80s and 90s along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee after it won only two Lok Sabha seats in 1984. Advani was moved out of the BJP's highest decision-making body, Parliamentary Board, in 2014 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the party to victory and Shah was made its president. He was made a member of Margdarshak Mandal (group of mentors), a body which has never met.