Advani relents, okay with Gandhinagar

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani has agreed to contest the coming elections from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, after a day-long drama that saw the party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, rush to his Prithviraj Road residence to placate him early Thursday morning.

The BJP patriarch had insisted on contesting from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, instead of his five-time constituency of Gandhinagar. Despite party leaders Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj meeting him twice in the past two days, Advani had refused to relent. On Thursday, he agreed within hours of the party president Rajnath Singh issuing an official release stating the “unanimous view of the party is the choice of where to contest from should be left to Advaniji”.

In a late-evening statement on Thursday, Advani said Modi had met him in the morning and “emphasised the people of Gujarat are keen that I represent the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency once again…I have represented the state both in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. Having represented the Gandhinagar constituency in the Lok Sabha since 1991, I have decided to contest the 2014 general elections from Gandhinagar”.

Soon after his candidature had been announced last night, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari visited the leader to convey the decision.

The drama in the BJP camp brought to the fore the tension between Modi and Advani, his strongest detractor. Observers recalled the similar drama that had followed Modi’s announcement as the party’s prime ministerial candidate at the BJP’s Goa conclave last year, when the 86-year-old Advani didn’t attend, opposing the decision.

Advani has said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is as able an administrator as Modi.

Party insiders say Advani?s high-stakes gamble was aimed at securing the support of the Gujarat chief minister, as well as ensuring the party workers in the state worked for his sixth win from Gandhinagar.