BJP defends exclusion of Advani from UP poll campaigners' list, attacks Oppn

New Delhi: Defending the move to drop party veteran Lal Krishna Advani and Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi from the list of 'star campaigners' for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday trained its guns at the Samajwadi Party and Congress while stating that they should introspect before coming up with unwarranted remarks.

Asserting that the political and campaign strategy is made very carefully. BJP's Siddharth Nath Singh told ANI that the saffron party enters into the electoral battlefield after taking blessings from the seniors.

"The BJP has its own campaign strategies. The BJP respects all senior leaders and let me also add here that everybody will be campaigning in the seven phases of elections and time to time the list is also revised, but those people who are trying to politicise certain issues must introspect themselves," he said.

Taking on the Samajwadi Party, the BJP leader highlighted the ongoing friction between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"And there is a party which doesn't even believe in democracy and they have been the oldest party in the country and they are commenting on this issue. I think they really need to introspect before commenting on BJP's start campaign list," he added while lambasting the Congress.

The BJP on Saturday released its list of 'star campaigners' for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls which sported the names of several party heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah and other Union Ministers.

However, the names of Advani and Varun Gandhi were missing from the list.

Earlier, reports had emerged that Varun was reportedly upset with his party for being neglected and sidelined ahead of the polls.

Contesting his maiden election from Pilibhit in 2009, Varun landed in Etah prison for three weeks for a purported hate speech.

Uttar Pradesh will vote in seven phases beginning February 11 and results will be announced on March 11.