Modi will contest Lok Sabha polls from one seat in Gujarat: BJP

The Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced that Chief Minister Narendra Modi will contest elections from one seat in the state, without ruling out the possibility that he may fight on a second seat from Uttar Pradesh.

"I can definitely say that Modiji will fight elections from one seat in Gujarat," state BJP general secretary Vijay Rupani told reporters.

"There has been a clamour to invite Narendra Modi to fight elections from four main cities of the state -- Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat. Our party workers want him to contest from Gujarat," Rupani said.

"Our (state BJP) parliamentary board had met over the last four days and decided that Modi would contest from one seat in Gujarat," he said, adding that the decision on which seat he will contest from is yet to be taken.

When asked if Modi will also contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP leader said, "I do not know anything about that seat, but it will be decided by our central parliamentary board."

There has been lot of confusion about which seat Modi will enter the poll fray from.

The BJP's prime ministerial candidate is at present in Delhi to attend the meetings of the central parliamentary board and the central election committee.

However, state party leaders said that candidates for Gujarat seats will not be discussed in those meetings.

To a question on whether party veteran L K Advani will be contesting from Gandhinagar, from where he has been elected five times, Rupani said, "The central parliamentary board will decide about that."

"We have not finalised the panel of names for the Lok Sabha seats in the first round of meeting of the parliamentary board. We will meet again after Holi to do that," he said.

BJP Gujarat unit's parliamentary board had met on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the residence of Modi, in his presence.

"Our (state) parliamentary board is likely to meet again to finalise the names of panels of candidates for the 26 Lok Sabha seats," state BJP spokesperson Harsad Patel said.

Image: Workers carry a hoarding of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad