Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she felt sad for veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani who was denied a ticket by his party to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
Advani has been replaced in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat by BJP President Amit Shah.
She said she also felt bad for late Union Minister Ananth Kumar’s wife Tejaswini, whose name did not figure in the BJP’s candidate list.
“I feel sad for Advaniji. He and Vajpayeeji were BJP seniors. But see how he has been left out. It is disgraceful that you cannot value seniority,” Banerjee told reporters here.
“You have to give (ticket) to young, women… but you cannot ignore some senior leaders,” she said.
She added: “Advaniji is their mentor. But they have forgotten their past, now that they’ve grown big. But old is always gold. Everybody will age one day,” she said.
Asked about the demonetisation in view the 18-minute purported video clip of a man who exchanged the scrapped currency worth Rs 5 crore at 40 per cent commission to get Rs 3 crore in Rs 2,000 notes with the alleged help of a BJP worker in Ahmedabad, Banerjee said: “On day one, I had given my opinion. Note ban is the biggest scam. You will find it in the future.”
