Fissures emerged among the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass at a poll panel meet on Saturday that finalised names of 52 Lok Sabha candidates, with Murli Manohar Joshi seeking clarification on whether prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would contest from Varanasi and Sushma Swaraj expressing reservation over the move to induct tainted leaders from Karnataka.

Though the leaders were reluctant to confirm what transpired in the meeting, party sources said Joshi asked party president Rajnath Singh to clarify whether Modi would contest from Varanasi, a seat which Joshi represents.

The BJP has requested Joshi to vacate the Varanasi seat, contending that Modi’s contest there would favourably impact 32 Lok Sabha seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The party had barely managed four of those seats in the 2009 elections. Joshi was offered a seat in Kanpur, the saffron party’s pocket borough. The central election committee meeting on Saturday was chaired by party president Rajnath Singh and attended among others by L K Advani, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, Ananth Kumar and  Venkaiah Naidu.