Narendra Modi visits LK Advani post Gandhinagar ticket storm

A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to field L.K Advani from Gujarat's Gandhinagar constituency, overruling the stalwart's desire to contest the elections from Bhopal, party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi met the patriarch to convince him to contest from Gandhinagar.

Modi met Advani at his residence this morning.

Though no official word has come out of what transpired during the meeting, reports claimed that Advani is sticking to his desire to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Bhopal.

Later, senior party leader Sushma Swaraj reached Advani's residence to meet him. Last night, Sushma had met him along with Nitin Gadkari to try and convince him.

Modi had also held a separate meeting with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat soon after the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting over the developments. Advani did not attend yesterday's CEC meet.

Advani, 87, wants to shift his political home from Gujarat, which has been governed by Modi for more than 10 years, to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, where Shivraj Singh Chouhan is chief minister.

Advani has been the sitting MP from Gandhinagar for the last 16 years.

Advani has represented Gandhinagar in the 10th Lok Sabha (1991-96), 12th Lok Sabha (1998-99), 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004), 14th Lok Sabha (2004-09) and the current 15th Lok Sabha (2009-14).