He said he was extremely grateful to Kailash Joshi, who represents Bhopal now, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, state party unit chief Narinder Singh Tomar and all members of the Election Committee of the state for proposing his name from Bhopal.
The settlement came after hectic discussions and meetings in the party. After Modi, senior leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu met Advani to placate him.
The Election Committee, headed by Rajnath Singh, yesterday decided to field Advani from Gandhinagar, angering him as he had desired to shift from Modi-ruled Gujarat to Bhopal, a reflection of his unease with the party's Prime Ministerial candidate.
With a sulking Advani insisting on contesting from Bhopal instead of Gandhinagar, from where he had won five times, Rajnath Singh said in a statement this evening that he had "consulted the members of the Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee of the Party on this issue telephonically since most of the members are traveling in various parts of the country.
"It is the unanimous view of the party that the choice of where to contest from should be left to Shri Advaniji himself," said Singh.
He said he had then spoken to Advani and "conveyed the views of all to him in this regard. The party will respect the opinion of Shri Advaniji with regard to his choice of constituency for contesting the election."
Earlier, he broke the news about his decision at a media conference in Chennai when asked about Advani's reluctance to contest from Gandhinagar.
"It is the choice of Advaniji to decide from where he would like to contest... I had left this option to Advaniji as to which is the seat he would like to contest from -- Gandhinagar or Bhopal," he said.
