Setting aside the rumors that BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi might contest from Varanasi, BJP’s national president Rajnath Singh said that there was no need to bring about a change in the candidature in this holy town.
Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi represents Varanasi."Is there a need to change Murli Manohar JoshiIJ," he asked and then said that Joshi was a senior party leader and he would continue to represent his old constituency.
Singh gave this clarification in an informal chat with reporters in Mirzapur. "The BJP will announce the names of its candidates for the next lok Sabha elections after January 15," he said after his visit to Goddess Vindyavasini’s temple in Vindhyachal.
He said that the party’s parliamentary board will decide whether Modi will contest election or not. And if Board says Modi should contest election he would be asked to select a seat of his choice, Singh said.
There is speculation about Modi contesting election from Uttar Pradesh. It is also believed that he could contest from one of the four safe seats - lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and Gautam Budh Nagar. Of these seats lucknow and Varanasi are represented by BJP’s lalji Tandon and Murli Manohar Joshi respectively.
Singh also questioned the foreign policy of the Congress-led UPA Government and said that the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement between India and China should be cancelled as it was against the interest of the country."The MPs should be taken into confidence in the Parliament, before the signing of such a serious agreement related to security of the country," Singh said.
He questioned how can one claim that China has not entered Indian soil, when the limits of the line of Control (loC) was not specified.On October 23 last, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese premier li Keqiang had signed a border pact in Beijing.