New Delhi: BJP leader and Union minister Uma Bharti Sunday said it is for L K Advani to clear the "mist", after the veteran leader was not named as a party candidate for the Lok Sabha elections, and asserted that his stature was not affected by contesting or not contesting any poll.
Heaping praises on the 91-year-old leader, Bharti said it was Advani who played the central role in bringing the party to such a position that Narendra Modi is prime minister today and added that he never craved for any position in his long political career.
"The only person who should comment right now to clear the air, all these things- the mist around- is Advani ji," she told PTI, adding that it would not be proper for others, including her, to comment on the matter.
She was responding to questions on the party's decision to not nominate him from Gandhinagar, a seat he had been winning since 1998.BJP president Amit Shah will contest from the seat in the coming general election.
There has been no official word from the party or the 91-year-old leader, who was its longest serving president, on his name not finding a place among the BJP's candidates for the poll.
A number of veteran leaders, including Shanta Kumar, B C Khanduri and Kariya Munda- all in their 80s- have not been fielded by the BJP in the polls, seen as part of its strategy under Modi and Shah to ease them out and groom younger leaders in their place.
Some of them had expressed their wish to not fight the coming polls.
Bharti said there cannot be a principle regarding not giving election tickets to leaders above a certain age and noted that many young MPs were also dropped by the party.
Fifty-nine-year-old Bharti herself is not contesting the Lok Sabha polls and said she had conveyed such a wish to the party leadership long back.
She said she plans to go on an 18-month-long journey on foot along the shores of the Ganga from May.
Bharti was on Saturday appointed as a party vice president.
She also expressed confidence that Modi will return as prime minister with a thumping victory in the polls, asserting that there is no alternative to him.
"I have been praying to God that Modi become prime minister again. It will do the country and its poor a lot of good," she asserted.
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Lucknow (PTI): Denied a ticket from Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat, BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Thursday wrote an emotional letter to the people of his constituency in which he asserted that his relationship with them will remain intact till his last breath.
Sharing the letter on X, he said, his relationship with Pilibhit is one of love and trust which is far above any political calculations.
The BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh Public Works Minister Jitin Prasada from Pilibhit replacing Gandhi, who has been vocal against his own government several times on the issue of inflation and unemployment.
Prasada had filed his nominations on this seat on Wednesday.
Recounting his association with the constituency, he said "Today, when I am writing this letter, countless memories have made me emotional. I remember that little three-year-old child who came to Pilibhit for the first time in 1983 holding the fingers of his mother. Little did he know that one day this land would become his work place and the people here would become his family".
"The ideals given by Pilibhit were instrumental in my upbringing and development not only as an MP but also as a person. Being your representative has been the greatest honour of my life and I have always raised my voice for your interests to the best of my ability," he said.
Varun Gandhi said his tenure as an MP may be coming to an end, but his relationship with Pilibhit can't end till his last breath.
"If not as an MP, then at least as a son, I am committed to serve you throughout my life and my doors will always remain open for you as before. I came into politics to raise the voice of the common man and today I seek your blessings to continue doing this work always. Even if I have to pay any cost for this," he added.
This is for the first time in over three decades that the mother-son duo of Maneka and Varun Gandhi will not be in the fray from the Pilibhit constituency which is located in the Terai belt bordering Nepal.
The denial of ticket to Varun Gandhi this time did not come as a surprise as he has been criticising the BJP on the issues of farmers, health and jobs.
After he was replaced by Prasada, reports did the rounds that Varun Gandhi might contest from the seat as an independent candidate. The suspense ended on Wednesday when he did not turn up before the nominations ended.
His mother Maneka Gandhi, the sitting MP from Sultanpur, was, however, given another chance from the same seat by the BJP.
The Pilibhit seat has remained with Maneka Gandhi or her son Varun Gandhi since 1996.
Maneka Gandhi won the seat on a Janata Dal ticket in 1989, lost in 1991 and won again in 1996. She won from the constituency in 1998 and 1999 as an Independent candidate. She won the seat in 2004 and 2014 as a BJP candidate.
Varun Gandhi won the seat in 2009 and 2019 as a BJP candidate.
प्रणाम पीलीभीत 🙏 pic.twitter.com/D6T3uDUU6o
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) March 28, 2024