BJP central panel to decide from which seat Narendra Modi will fight Lok Sabha polls

BJP's central election committee will decide from which seat its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, BJP chief Rajnath Singh said today.

"These things are decided by party's Central Election Committee and any individual cannot say whether he can fight from a place A or B," Singh said at a press conference here.

He was replying to a question on possibility of Modi fighting the next Lok Sabha polls from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, a state where the party is eyeing electoral gains.

To another question on the Gujarat Chief Minister, he said, "The fact cannot be denied that if there is most popular leader at this time in the country, it is Narendra Modi." When asked that BJP had lost allies after Modi's elevation in the party, he indicated that there will be pre-poll and post-poll alliances.

Singh asserted that senior party leader L K Advani had no problem with Modi's elevation.

"He is our senior most leader, our guardian and our everything. He has every right to point it out to me (referring to Advani's recent letter)...he has no grudge against Modi. You must have seen that after Modi's name was declared, he expressed happiness, during a visit to Chhattisgarh," Singh said.

He sought to downplay the absence of Modi and some other Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states from the National Integration Council meeting in Delhi today.

"Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj was there...whatever our top leaders say, for us that is the party's line," he said.

To another question, he said the party will soon make its vision document public, under which it will spell out how it intends to take the country forward, among other issues.

When asked if Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would be made the NDA convenor after JDU chief Sharad Yadav's party parted ways with BJP and the post fell vacant, he said Advani, who is NDA chairman, can give answer this question.