RSS today stepped into the reported Varanasi seat row between BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi, saying it is worried about it, but was confident that the party would solve it. RSS General Secretary Suresh Bhaiyaji Joshi told reporters on the concluding day of the three-day meet of Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, its top policy making body, in Bangalore that the BJP leaders are experienced enough and capable to resolve the problem.

In Delhi, breaking his silence on the issue, M M Joshi said he would accept any decision the party's parliamentary board takes like a “disciplined soldier” and hoped it would neither dent the PM candidate's prestige nor hurt party's electoral chances. Mr. Joshi was replying to a media query in New Delhi about the reports that BJP wants to shift him from his Varanasi seat to Kanpur in order to make room for party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

The reported controversy over who will contest from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency had reportedly found its echo at BJP's Central Election Committee meeting in Delhi yesterday.

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj today denied in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, that there was any rift in the party on the issue.