M A I N   N E W S

Fireworks in BJP over Modi seat
Joshi walks out; Sushma objects to tie-ups with ‘dubious’ parties
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 8
All’s not well within the Bharatiya Janata Party. Or so it seems. Senior party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi left a crucial party meeting today. Differences over Narendra Modi’s candidature from Varanasi and alliances with “dubious” parties apparently led to the showdown.

Senior leader Ananth Kumar sought to play it down saying “Sushma ji had to attend a function in Bhopal and Joshi ji had to visit his constituency.” But it failed to end the buzz about heated discussions at the closed-door meeting called to finalise the second list of candidates at the party office this morning.

Sources say BJP president Rajnath Singh faced some difficult questions from Joshi, the sitting MP from Varanasi, over reports about Modi contesting the seat. While Joshi wanted to the reason behind party’s failure to clarify, Sushma questioned the need for changing seats of senior party leaders without their consent when there was indeed a “Modi wave”.

Sushma tweeted that she was “going to Bhopal for important party meetings” but the absence of the senior-most woman BJP leader at a special “Chai pe charcha” programme on International Day for Women at the party headquarters, where Modi was also present, raised eyebrows.

Sushma, who is quite active on the Twitter, did not reply to her followers’ request for clarification on her walkout from the CEC meeting. Sushma and Joshi, along with veteran leader LK Advani, were among those who had initially opposed Modi’s projection as party’s prime ministerial candidate. While most of the dissenting members had come across over the period, issues seem to be re-emerging over the way the BJP was singularly projecting Modi “as if no one else existed”.

Sources say the problem has been further magnified in the way the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh was being handled by Modi’s aide Amit Shah. Shah is apparently deciding on who will fight from where.