Day after Advani’s snub, Murli Manohar Joshi meets party veteran

New Delhi: A day after BJP veteran L.K. Advani said that his party never regarded political foes as “anti-nationals”, senior leader and former party President Murli Manohar Joshi met him on Friday.

What transpired between the party veterans is not clear but it is widely believed that the two leaders discussed the situation wherein the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) denied them ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Joshi drove to Advani’s official residence to meet him, informed sources said.

The development comes on a day when Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced that she would not contest the general elections commencing next week.

Making her intentions clear in a letter released by her office, the outgoing MP from the Indore parliamentary constituency urged the BJP leadership to end “indecision” over the party’s candidate from Indore.

Although the BJP has announced several candidates for Madhya Pradesh, the party is yet to name anyone from Indore. Mahajan noted in the letter that it is possible that the party leadership is feeling shy in taking a decision (to replace her).

Advani, who represented the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency six times since 1991, was denied ticket and replaced by BJP President Amit Shah.

Joshi had ruled out contesting the Lok Sabha polls in a letter he wrote to his electorate in Kanpur, stating that he is doing so after BJP’s General Secretary (Organisation) Ram Lal reportedly told him to withdraw from the fray. The BJP later replaced him with Satyadev Pachauri.

Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Shanta Kumar and former Union Minister Kalraj Mishra were also asked not to contest.

Published on: April 5, 2019 at 20:13 IST

IANS