BJP veteran leader Murli Manohar Joshi has sent out a message to voters in his Kanpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh that he had been told by his party not to contest the national election. The 85 year old was the latest to be put on bench by the BJP, after it denied a ticket to 91 year old LK Advani.
The party have been retiring politicians over 75 years.
Mr. Joshi released a message on Monday, addressed to his constituency, read, “Dear voters of Kanpur, Shri Ram Lal General Secretary (Org), Bharatiya Janata Party conveyed to me today that I should not contest the ensuing parliamentary election from Kanpur and elsewhere.”
Mr Joshi, who was a union minister and was once the BJP president was also not included in the list of campaigners in Uttar Pradesh.
In 2014, Joshi give up his Varanasi seat for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and moved to Kanpur.
LK Advani, Kalraj Mishra, Shanta Kumar and Kariya Munda were informed by Mr. Ram Lal, National General Secretary that they would not contest this time.
LK Advani, was India’s first Deputy Prime Minister, is also hurt, according to sources. Amit Shah who stole Advani’s Gandhinagar seat did not even come to inform him about the party’s decision.
Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani who are the founding members of the BJP, were denied any post after the party came to power in 2014. They were sent to a five-member Margdarshak Mandal (group of mentors). The group never met in the past five years.
Now the two leaders will not be seen in the Lok Sabha for the first time.