Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh speaks with Sushma Swaraj as the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi looks on with senior leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Arun Jaitley at a meeting in New Delhi yesterday.


IANS/Ahmedabad

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will contest the Lok Sabha election from at least one seat in his own state of Gujarat, party leaders said yesterday.
They, however, did not make it clear if the Gujarat chief minister would also fight from a constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
“I can definitely say that Modi-ji will fight the elections from one seat in Gujarat,” state BJP general secretary Vijay Rupani told reporters.
“There has been a clamour to invite Narendra Modi to fight elections from four main cities of the state - Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat. Our party workers wish that he should contest from Gujarat,” he said.
The decision that Modi should contest from Gujarat was taken after a series of meetings over the last few days.
“Our (state BJP) parliamentary board had met over the last four days where it was finalised that Modi will contest from Gujarat,” he said.
However, the decision on which seat he will contest is yet to be taken, Rupani said.
In Speculation is rife that Modi would contest from either Varanasi or Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh to strengthen his claim as a national leader.
New Delhi, the Aam Admi Party said it has almost decided to pit former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal against Modi if he contests from Varanasi.
AAP leader and Kejriwal’s confidant Manish Sisodia also said his party hopes to field 350-400 candidates in the April-May elections and do particularly well in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
“If Modi contests from Varanasi, then we have almost decided that Arvind Kejriwal will be pitted against him,” Sisodia said.
Sisodia, who was education minister in the 49-day AAP government in Delhi, hoped Modi will contest one Lok Sabha seat - not two seats - if he is indeed a mass leader.
“Those who are afraid (of losing) contest from two seats. If he is afraid, he will fight from two seats. Let him decide.”
There is intense speculation that the BJP will field the Gujarat chief minister in the temple town of Varanasi in a bid to generate a pro-BJP wave in Uttar Pradesh.
Pressed to confirm that Kejriwal , 45, will be a candidate in the general election, Sisodia replied: “Personally, I feel he should contest.”
The AAP, formed in November 2012, has announced 187 candidates for the Lok Sabha battle thus far. It includes a mix of the known and the unknown.
In other developments, BJP spokesman Prakash Javedkar said the party is witnessing a “scene in contrast.”
“Today we are witnessing a scene in contrast as leaders after leaders and ministers after ministers are refusing to fight on the Congress ticket,” Javedkar said.
He said the Congress leaders were no more keen on working for the party and were opting out from the election field.
“People are joining and want to contest on the BJP ticket and even if they do not get the ticket, they want to work for the party,” Javedkar said.
“There is extreme enthusiasm within the party,” he added.
Also yesterday, a Congress spokesman said vice president Rahul Gandhi will interact with party leaders in Uttar Pradesh through video conferencing tomorrow.
The Gandhi scion, hard pressed for time owing to his election campaigns elsewhere in the country, decided to take the electronic route for crucial interaction, sources said.
Apart from wishing party workers on the occasion of Holi, the festival of colours, the Congress leader will evaluate the election preparations during his interaction with a selected group of 125 party leaders.
Besides offering the party’s tickets for the polls, the Congress vice president will take feedback on the issues faced by the party in the state.
The issues for campaigning for the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state will also be discussed, a party leader said.