Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara , Uttar Pradesh or else!

Ahmedabad, 3 March 2014

“Can you please throw some light on possible seat from which Modi may fight the Lok Sabha election?”

A journo asks another journo who has good experience in reporting BJP and NaMo affairs.

“Well the obvious choice should be Ahmedabad(East).The other seat could be Gandhinagar where Narendra Modi is living presently. Modi has property there. These are obvious choices.”

“Also Vadodara?”

“There’s report in Gujarati daily quoting sources in Mamlatdar office, Vadodara that Modi is going to contest from Vadodara seat. Present BJP MP Balkrushna Shukla(first time MP) won Vadodara by margin of 1,36,028 votes which was in 2009 the second highest margine in entire country.”

“But then another Gujarati daily quoted Ahmedabad(East) MP Harin Pathak as saying that he was approached by party and conveyed that Shri Modi would contest from Ahmedabad(East) seat.”

“And about Uttar Pradesh?”

“Well BJP’s Uttar Pradesh prabhari Amit Shah has said more than once that he would like Mr. Modi to contest from Uttar Pradesh. He repeated same in recently aired ‘Aap Ki Adalat’ interview also. But when you ask pradesh incharge of party whether he would like Modi to contest from his state, he would obviously reply positively. But event tactically, contesting from Uttar Pradesh is good idea. And it has been tested in the past.”

“Tested? how?”

“Lal Krishna Advani once contested on two seats – Gandhinagar and Delhi. He was originally a Delhi politician, but rushed to Gandhinagar, just because there was sudden threat from Congress candidate Rajesh Khanna in Delhi. So lets take Atal Bihari Vajpayee as good example. Vajpayee selected to contest on two seats – Gandhinagar and Lucknow in 1996. In those days, he was not unsure of winning any of two seats. He choose to contest from two places, so that party could have advantage in both regions. Vajpayee won both seats and vacated Gandhinagar seat later. Even in 1991, Atalji contested from Vidisha and Lucknow both seats. Vajpayee contested on two seats(Lucknow and Balrampur) in 1962 and 1957(Mathura and Lucknow) too. So combination of natural place of contest(home-town or home-state) and political place of contest(to create favorable ripples) is tested idea.”

“Personally what do you feel?”

“In 2001 Advani selected Modi to become the Chief Minister of Gujarat and sent him to Gandhinagar from Delhi. Modi choose Rajkot to contest the assembly poll. No-one had imagined that Modi would contest from Rajkot. Then sitting MLA Vajubhai Vala vacated the seat, Modi contested from there and and was victorious. In entire Gujarati media there were always discussions that Modi would contest from Ellis bridge, but he never choose Ellis bridge, and selected Maninagar. You just can’t predict Modi’s mind in some matters.”