)
“Every disciplined soldier accepts the party’s decision. I do not talk about issues of seat allocation outside. Whatever I say is within the party,” Joshi said.
On Saturday, Joshi, at the meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee, had expressed his unhappiness at reports that he might be shifted from Varanasi, in order for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi to contest from there.
On Sunday however, Joshi dismissed talk that he was upset. “Such reports are a mental fiction of the media,” he said.
He indicated he didn’t want to be a cause of any situation that might hurt either the party’s prestige or that of Narendra Modi.
Joshi said the decision on his seat would be taken on March 13, when the BJP announces its final list of candidates, including those from the crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Party sources said Joshi was likely to be fielded from Kanpur, and that he was agreeable to contesting from that seat. Sources also said it was still not certain whether Modi would be fielded from Varanasi.
A substantial section of the UP unit wants Modi to contest from Varanasi. It believes this would invigorate the party machinery, would send a positive message to the Uttar Pradesh electorate and help the BJP achieve its target of winning 50 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats.
Sources said the party making Joshi vacate Varanasi wasn’t to insult the senior leader at the expense of Modi. “Our assessment is that Joshi may have struggled to win the Varanasi seat,” said a source, adding there was resentment within the local party unit members many of whom feel Joshi didn’t do enough for either party workers or the area.
Sources said making Joshi move to Kanpur was part of the party’s ‘Mission 272+’ strategy. Other senior leaders like Lalji Tandon, a sitting MP from Lucknow, are also unlikely to get party tickets or moved to a new constituency for the same reason. The party believes a fresh face, either Modi or party president Rajnath Singh, should contest from Lucknow which was once former primr minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s constituency. Sources say the reason to shift Singh from Ghaziabad, where he is a sitting MP, is also part of the assessment that he might find it difficult to repeat his 2009 victory given the Aam Aadmi Party factor. However, Tandon has told the party that he might be willing to vacate Lucknow, from where he is a sitting MP, but only for the party's prime ministerial candidate.
The suspense on whether Modi would at all contest from UP and if he does than will it be Lucknow or Benares may only end on March 13 when the BJP announces its final list of candidates, including that of crucial states of UP and Bihar.
That Joshi is convinced about the rationale behind the shift of his constituency was evident on Sunday. He said the decision on his seat would be taken on March 13. Joshi said "every disciplined soldier accepts party's decision" and that he doesn't talk about issues of seat allocation outside. "Whatever I say is within the party," said Joshi.
Joshi, who heads the party's manifesto committee, today met over 50 representatives of farmers and peasants organisations from across the country. The representatives held a meeting with Joshi to apprise him of the concerns of the country's peasants, including setting up of a permanent commission to fix minimum support price, their opposition to GM seeds, the havoc that pesticides were wreaking on the land, etc.
