Upto Advani to choose where he will fight LS polls: Rajnath

Chennai, Mar.20 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that it is upto party patriarch L.K. Advani to decide from where he would to contest the upcoming general elections.

"I have received a proposal for his candidature from Gandhinagar from Gujarat and Bhopal from Madhya Pradesh. Yesterday, the Central Election Committee had taken a decision to field Advani from Gandhinagar," said Rajnath.

"But after that I received a proposal for Bhopal seat also. I have left this decision on Advani to choose the seat from where he would like to contest - from Gandhinagar or Bhopal," he added.

An array of BJP leaders including Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, M.Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley has met L.K Advani, who is upset over being fielded from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat against his wishes.

Earlier, the Gujarat Chief Minister and the party's prime ministerial candidate went to his residence, and was there for about half-an-hour apparently to persuade him to contest from Gandhinagar.

Though no official word has come out of what transpired during the meeting, reports claimed that Advani is sticking to his desire to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Bhopal.

Later, senior party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu reached Advani's residence to meet him.

Last night, Sushma had met him along with Nitin Gadkari to try and convince him.

Modi had also held a separate meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat soon after the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting over the developments. Advani did not attend yesterday's CEC meet.

Advani, 87, wants to shift his political home from Gujarat, which has been governed by Modi for more than 10 years, to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, where Shivraj Singh Chouhan is chief minister.

Advani has been the sitting MP from Gandhinagar for the last 16 years.

Advani has represented Gandhinagar in the 10th Lok Sabha (1991-96), 12th Lok Sabha (1998-99), 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004), 14th Lok Sabha (2004-09) and the current 15th Lok Sabha (2009-14). (ANI)