BJP president Amit Shah likely to meet upset LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi today

BJP president Amit Shah is expected to meet upset party veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi who were denied tickets by the party for upcoming general elections.

Amit Shah (Source: PTI)

New Delhi: On a day when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is scheduled to release its poll manifesto, party president Amit Shah is expected to meet upset party veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi who were denied tickets by the party for upcoming general elections. The meeting is being held to get back the senior leaders back to the party fold at a time the opposition has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for benching "their gurus". LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, founder members of the BJP, are extremely unhappy about the way they were snubbed out of the election battle this year. Mr Advani, 91, was told that Amit Shah would contest from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, a seat the BJP patriarch has contested and been elected for six terms. Meanwhile, Mr Joshi penned down a heartfelt public message to the voters of his constituency Kanpur last month that he had been told by the party he would not contest from Kanpur or anywhere in the election. Mr Advani didn't go public for weeks but delivered his message in a blog last week. In the post reminding the BJP of democratic principles, he wrote that the party never considered its critics as "anti-nationals". The opposition seized the comments as a direct jab at PM Modi and Amit Shah, who have been accusing rivals during their campaign of "speaking Pakistan's language". The BJP will release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled to start from April 11 on Monday, with issues of development and national security set to be its key highlights. Top party leaders, including Prime Minister Modi and its chief Shah, will be present at the launch of the manifesto, described by the BJP as its "Sankalp Patra".