New Delhi:
It will be a keen contest between major political parties, when they will fight it for the crucial electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh next year. It will be a contest between BJP, BSP and SP in the state. Both SP and BSP have CM candidates but BJP has to project someone to face the biggies in the state.
After the debacle in Bihar polls without naming a chief ministerial candidate, but this time BJP might go for a face in the unstable state.
After the Bihar fiasco, the right wing party named Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate ahead of the assembly polls in Assam.
The problem for the BJP is despite winning 71 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, they don’t have many credible faces to project. The saffron party has some good leaders like Laxmi Kant Bajpai, Kalraj Mishra, Yogi Adityanath, Rajnath Singh and many more but one is competent quiet enough to lead the party in the state.
Earlier, BJP chief Amit Shah met UP leaders to discuss the strategy for the polls. Ramlal and Sunil Bansal, the RSS representatives working in the BJP were also present in the meeting.
According to sources, five-term MLA Dharampal Singh, a Lodh leader from Ruhelkhand, and junior railway minister Manoj Sinha, a Bhumihar leader from eastern UP, can be the state chief job.
The saffron has upper caste faces in the state but they need a backward face as they hold the key to form the government in the state. However, the BJP is also worried about its upper caste votes as they can drift towards Mayawati if they will not project itself as contender to form the government.
Not only Union Home minister Rajnath Singh, Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi could be another contender for the CM post, but he does not enjoy a rapport with party chief Amit Shah.
HRD minister Smriti Irani gave a tough fight to Congress vice-president Rahul Gadhi in Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but she doesn’t have the charisma to be the potential face in the state.
It will be a rock smashing job for the BJP top brass to decide the face before the crucial polls.
