A day after BJP veteran L K Advani gave up his bid to contest from Bhopal and stick to Gandhinagar, the party axed the candidatures of two leaders — Jaswant Singh and Harin Pathak — seen to be close to him.
BJP gave the Barmer ticket to Jat leader Sona Ram instead of former finance minister Jaswant Singh and denied Pathak — who has been at odds with Narendra Modi — a re-nomination from Ahmedabad (east).
The decisions are seen as setbacks to Advani. He was instrumental in ensuring Jaswant Singh’s return to BJP after his expulsion following a controversy over his book’s critical references to Sardar Patel and his assertion that Muslim League leader M A Jinnah had been demonized in India.
In Harin Pathak’s case, Advani’s intervention in 2009 had saved the senior MP’s candidature after the Modi-dominated Gujarat BJP unit had decided to deny him a ticket from Ahmedabad (east).
BJP sources said party chief Rajnath Singh explained the decision on Barmer to Jaswant Singh but the senior leader remains unhappy amid reports that he might consider standing as an independent.
The choice of Sona Ram, a locally influential leader who recently joined BJP, is seen to be driven by the calculus that fielding the feisty Jat will suit the party interests in consolidating the community in the constituency and the area that borders Pakistan.
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