New Delhi, Mar 22 (IT): If PM Narendra Modi cannot respect Lal Krishna Advani, how will he respect the wishes of the people, the Congress posed to the Bharatiya Janata Party on Twitter. The tweet, by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, was a reaction to the BJP fielding party chief Amit Shah in place of LK Advani from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat.
Gandhinagar will go to the polls on April 23 along all the other 25 seats of Gujarat. Gujarat will vote in phase three of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls. Results will be out May 23.
Today, the BJP released its first list of candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. PM Narendra Modi will contest from Varansi while Smriti Irani will once again face-off against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow, Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur, and Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal West.
The big name missing on the list was BJP stalwart LK Advani. BJP chief Amit Shah will contest from the seat instead, a development effectively signalling an end to Advani's storied political career.
To this, the Congress retorted saying PM Modi cannot respect LK Advani. "First, Shri Lal Krishna Advani was forcibly sent to a 'Margdarshak Mandal', and now they have taken away his parliamentary seat. If PM Narendra Modi cannot respect Lal Krishna Advani, how will he respect the wishes of the people?" Randeep Surjewala tweeted. "BJP bhagao, desh bachao [Remove country, save country]," said Surjewala.