(In the Know Your Candidate series, tfipost.com will profile interesting candidates in the run-up to the 2019 General Elections.)
Yesterday, the BJP released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Parliamentary polls. The list has a total of 184 candidates. The biggest takeaway from the list turned out to be the fact that Prime Minister Modi will contest the upcoming polls from Varanasi. Another big takeaway is the BJP President Amit Shah’s candidature from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat. This was bound to be analysed deeply by the mainstream media, political commentators and most importantly, the political opponents for two reasons. The first is that it is going be Amit Shah’s first Lok Sabha fight and secondly, because he has succeeded party veteran Lal Krishna Advani who won six times from the Gandhinagar constituency. For the first time he won from the said constituency in 1991 and then for a consecutive five times since 1998.
As soon as it came to light that the present BJP President, Amit Shah is going to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Gandhinagar, the mainstream media started suggesting that Advani has been replaced by the BJP president Amit Shah. The political commentators have been analysing this development as if retirement from an active political career has been imposed upon the party veteran, L.K. Advani. As per a News18 report, “To political pundits, the decision (to field Shah from the Gandhinagar constituency) has sent two clear signals – one that as Advani himself did not declare himself his retirement from electoral politics means he has been made to retire, and two, the party by replacing him with Shah has appointed his political heir.” Rahul Gandhi led Congress also reacted in a similar manner to the development. The grand old party tried attacking over the BJP over what it called “disrespect” of elders. Party spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala tweeted, “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?”
पहले श्री लाल कृष्ण अडवाणी को ज़बरन ‘मार्ग दर्शक’ मंडल में भेज दिया,
अब उनकी संसदीय सीट भी छीन ली।
जब मोदीजी बुज़ुर्गों का आदर नहीं करते,
वह जनता के विश्वास का आदर कहाँ करेंगे?भाजपा भगाओ,
देश बचाओ।#bjpfirstlist— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) March 21, 2019
It is clear that the mainstream media has reported the decision to field Amit Shah from the Gandhinagar Parliamentary constituency in a way which gives the impression that Advani has been ruthlessly replaced by the present party president. The Congress has also tried to build on a similar narrative for obvious reasons. However, the fact remains that there could have been no one better to succeed Advani in the Gandhinagar constituency. In fact, Amit Shah was the poll manager for the initial elections that Advani contested from the constituency. Moreover, earlier Shah was an MLA from Sarkhej seat which falls within the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. Kishor Chauhan, BJP MLA from Vejalpur, which is a part of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency said, “BJP workers want party president Amit Shah to contest from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. I made this demand in front of the observers and it was supported by all.” He added, “He (Shah) knows everybody here and is the right candidate to represent us.”
Therefore, Amit Shah is the natural heir to the Gandhinagar Constituency. And he succeeded the party veteran in the most respectful, appropriate and humble manner possible. The sham of this decision being disrespectful to Advani is mere eyewash in order to score political points.