Rajeev Shukla was busy chit-chatting with some of his friends in the Central Hall that suddenly BJP President Amit Shah appeared beside him. Seeing Shah coming to him, a surprised Shukla immediately stood up and greeted him.
Shah then said to Shukla, “You are leisurely sitting here, don’t you have to leave for Gujarat?”
By then, Shukla was not aware at all of the fact that the party may send him to Gujarat at the very last moment, right before the closing of the nomination, because the Congress candidature for Gujarat was still not clear on papers. But the party had yet not informed him about him being considered a substitute candidate.
Shah quipped with Shukla: “Tell us if I should arrange a chartered plane for you on my behalf.” Shukla thought that the party president was in a funny mood, but later it turned out to be true and the subsequent developments are known to all that due to the constructions work, the Ahmedabad airport was closed till 7 pm, when Shukla’s Delhi-Ahmedabad flight was scheduled to land there.
Sources reveal that Shukla actually sought a ticket from Bihar, but BJP was in favour of ally JDU’s Meira Kumar, while the Bihar Congress sought a local candidate. That is why Shukla’s name was struck down from Bihar.
It is now being heard that Arun Jaitley, an integral friend of Shukla, has suggested him to join BJP. Everyone knows about Shukla that he is a master of politics, who can sense the changing colors of the politics and also identify the double faces.