Amit Shah to contest Lok Sabha election from LK Advani's Gandhinagar
Amit Shah will contest the Lok Sabha election from Gandhinagar, a seat held by BJP stalwart LK Advani for the last five terms
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha from Gujarat's Gandhinagar. Shah's contesting from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat is a virtual signal that BJP stalwart LK Advani's political career in over. Advani is the current Member of Parliament from Gandhinagar, he has been the Gandhinagar MP for the last five terms.
The announcement of Amit Shah contesting from Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha election came at a press conference late evening where Union minister JP Nadda announced names of BJP candidates on 184 seats. The first phase of voting in the seven-phase Lok Sabha election will be held on April 11.
The BJP announced that PM Narendra Modi will be contesting from his current constituency -- Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi. The other top BJP leaders whose names were announced were Smriti Irani from Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's Amethi constituency and Rajnath Singh from Lucknow.
Follow the live updates on the BJP's announcement of its first list of candidates here.
Union ministers Rajyavardhan Rathore will contest from Jaipur Rural in Rajasthan while Kiren Rijiju will contest from Arunachal West.
While the fact that LK Advani will not be contesting from the Lok Sabha election, at least from the Gandhinagar seat (the BJP might choose to field him from another constituency), is significant, it isn't surprising.
Advani's prominence within the BJP reduced in 2014 when Narnedra Modi and Amit Shah assumed leadership roles in the saffron party. And since then, there has been no looking back for LK Advani.
His performance in Parliament in the last five years is also a pointer to Advani's diminished role in the BJP -- In the last five years, LK uttered just 365 words in Parliament despite a 92% attendance, as our in-depth analysis in February this year had showed.