Kanpur: Local MP and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi was among the few parliamentarians from Uttar Pradesh who gave BJP chief Amit Shah's meeting here a miss.
Almost all BJP MPs and MLAs from the state attended the review meeting on the party's mass contact programme under ‘Mission 2017' for UP Assembly polls.
Party sources said Joshi had some previously scheduled meetings and engagements and had conveyed his inability to attend the meeting.
Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi too was not present as he had to attend an event of Law Commission of India in Delhi. Besides Varun, Pilibhit MP Maneka Gandhi and Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath were also absent.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is MP from Varanasi, is on an official visit abroad, while Home Minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh attended a security meeting in Guwahati.
When asked about the leaders' absence, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya evaded the question. Besides UP MPs and MLAs, all party district presidents from the state were also present in the meeting.
