IANS/New Delhi
Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch L K Advani yesterday said he has decided to contest from the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency after he was “touched” by the gesture of party leaders to give him the choice between the Gujarat seat and Bhopal.
Putting an end to a raging controversy over the reported sulking of the senior party leader after he was told to contest from Gandhinagar and not his choice of Bhopal, Advani said: “I have decided to contest the 2014 general elections from Gandhinagar itself. I have conveyed my opinion to (party president) Rajnath Singh.”
Advani said he agreed to go with the choice of Gandhinagar after he was approached by the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and by Rajnath Singh and it was conveyed to him that he was free to choose between the two parliamentary seats.
In other developments, Rajnath Singh said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) hoped to win 25 seats in Tamil Nadu.
He was speaking in Chennai after announcing a six-party alliance to contest the elections in Tamil Nadu.
“We expect 25 seats from Tamil Nadu. This is a formidable alliance,” Rajnath Singh said, flanked on the dais by DMDK’s Vijaykant, MDMK’s Vaiko, PMK’s Anbumani Ramadoss, IJK’s T R Pachamuthu and KMDK’s Eshwaran.
The BJP will contest eight seats, the DMDK 14, the PMK eight, the MDMK seven, and the IJK and the KMDK one each.
Denying that the alliance was stitched very late when major rivals - the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - have already started their poll campaign, the BJP chief said his party has already kicked off its campaign in the state and Modi will also go there soon.
“It is a historical moment for the country’s politics. This is a decisive message for the whole nation,” he said about the poll alliance.
He asserted that the NDA, when it comes to power, will maintain the federal nature of the country which was destroyed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government during the past 10 years.
The MDMK meanwhile said Vaiko will contest from Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency.
In a statement, the MDMK said apart from Vaiko, the other six contestants will be: Masilamani (Sriperumbudur), Mallai Sathya (Kanchipuram), A Ganesamurthy (Erode), K Azhaghusundaram (Theni), Sadan Thirumalaikumar (Tenkasi) and Joyal (Tuticorin).
Meanwhile, a new political alliance is taking shape in Andhra Pradesh ahead of assembly and Lok Sabha polls as the BJP, the Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena, launched recently by Telugu actor Pawan Kalyan, are inching towards an understanding.
Kalyan will meet Modi today in Ahmedabad for talks to finalise the arrangement, while BJP leader Prakash Javadekar will visit Hyderabad to meet TDP leaders.
Both BJP and TDP are keen to have the young actor as a partner in the alliance as they were attracted by his slogan ‘Congress hatao, desh bachao’ (Remove Congress, save the country).
Kalyan, the younger brother of federal minister and Congress leader K Chiranjeevi, has held preliminary talks with BJP leaders for an alliance. While launching Jana Sena last week, he came down heavily on the Congress for dividing Andhra Pradesh but spared both the TDP and BJP.
In Lucknow, the Bahujan Samaj Party released the names of party candidates for all the 80 Lok Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh.
BSP supremo and former chief minister Mayawati said the party had nominated candidates in accordance with its belief and commitment in ‘samajik sadbhavna’ (social harmony).
She said the party has fielded 17 candidates belonging to the scheduled castes category, 15 from the backward castes, 19 Muslims, 21 Brahmins and eight candidates who belong to the Thakur community.
Taking a jibe at other national parties for “releasing candidate lists in installments,” the Dalit leader said her party was releasing the names in one go.
Mayawati said her party’s aim was to emerge as a “balance of power” at the Centre after the general elections, and added that in case her party was in a position to form the government, she will ensure development for all.
