The BJP will send the election commission a revised list of leaders who would use choppers to campaign in the upcoming Gujarat polls.
While this led to speculation whether the name of party president Nitin Gadkari — accused of business irregularities that could “damage” the party's
campaign — would figure in the list, BJP leaders told HT that his name would be there.
What is significant, however, is that the revised list is going to include the names of some leaders from Bihar, while the earlier one skipped all names from the state.
The earlier list — which is now null and void — was sent to the state election commission by the Gujarat unit of BJP. The list being prepared now will be sent by the central BJP to the EC.
“The convention is that the state unit sends a list to the central unit, which then adds some names and sends it to the EC. But the state unit sent the list directly to the state EC. The list that will now go will be final,” said a BJP leader.
The exclusion of Bihar leaders in the earlier list was widely seen as the Gujarat BJP trying to “settle scores” after the hostile attitude of Bihar chief minister and NDA ally Nitish Kumar towards Modi over the past few years.