Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly sidelining its veteran leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19.

“The way Modi ji has insulted his elders – Advani ji and Murli Manohar Joshi ji – is completely against the Hindu traditions,” Kejriwal said in a series of tweets. “Hinduism teaches us to respect our elders. The elders who built the home were thrown out. One who can’t be loyal to his elders, who will he be loyal to? Is this the Indian tradition?”

“Hinduism doesn’t ask us to insult our elders,” he said, adding that the people of the country were discussing why Modi was insulting veterans such as LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj.

Last week, BJP President Amit Shah was announced the candidate from Advani’s seat, Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Earlier on Tuesday, reports emerged that Joshi had written to voters in Kanpur, his parliamentary seat, saying he has been benched.

In the undated letter, which has not been verified independently by Scroll.in, Joshi tells voters of Kanpur that BJP’s National General Secretary (Organisation) Ramlal told him that he “should not contest the ensuing parliamentary election from Kanpur and elsewhere”. In 2014, Joshi had vacated his Varanasi seat for Modi and contested from Kanpur instead.

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had announced in November that she will not contest the upcoming elections citing health reasons.

Several reports over the last few weeks have said the BJP is not giving tickets to politicians who are over 75 or 80 years of age. Joshi is 85, while Advani is 91. The two veteran leaders are also not among the BJP’s star campaigners, according to ANI.