The Gujarat unit of the BJP plans to plead with the party's central parliamentary board to nominate Chief Minister Narendra Modi to contest from one of the 20 general seats in Gujarat, party sources said here today.
All party units in these 20 parliamentary constituencies (including L K Advani's Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency) have unanimously recommended the party's national leadership that Modi contest a Lok Sabha seat from Gujarat, secretary of the Gujarat unit of the BJP Bharat Pandya said here today.
"There are 26 seats from Gujarat which include six reserved seats. The party is going to win all 26 seats," he said.
When asked how could the BJP expect to win all 26 seats this time when the BJP could win only 15 of the 26 seats during the 2009 Lok Sabha poll from Gujarat when Modi was at the helm of affairs, Pandya said, "There has been a change in the political atmosphere in Gujarat, since all six crore of the state's population want Modi to be the Prime Minister of the country."
People are angry because the then leadership of the undivided Congress party had not allowed the then party supremo, the late Morarji Desai to be the Prime Minister after the deaths of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, he said.
While a strategic decision had been taken to field Modi from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, he must also contest from Gujarat, the state where he evolved his "development model", Pandya said.
The BJP is expected to decide on candidates for Gujarat's 26 seats by tomorrow and it is expected that Modi could choose to contest from either Ahmedabad East or Vadodara.
Party sources did not rule out Modi contesting from Vadodara seat because the alphabet 'V' stands for Vada Pradhan (prime minister), victory, Vadodara and for Varanasi.
Sources also said that Congress city unit president Narendra Rawat who is likely to be the party's candidate, would prove to be a weak candidate against Modi.
