Four days after the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) landslide victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the party is finally expected to take a call on the ticklish issue of naming its chief ministerial candidate on Thursday.
A few names such as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and his Cabinet colleague Manoj Sinha, BJP UP unit president Keshav Prasad Maurya and Lucknow Mayor Dinesh Sharma are doing the rounds here and in the state capital Lucknow. But as of now there is no definite word on who will finally get the call for the top job in Uttar Pradesh. There are unconfirmed news reports here that BJP president Amit Shah has made an offer to Rajnath Singh for the post who in turn has sought time to take a call on the matter.
When the BJP’s highest decision making body, BJP Parliamentary Board, begins the process of zeroing in on a suitable candidate tomorrow at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it may pose the most difficult of challenges for the party post the historic victory. In Lucknow 325 newly-elected legislators (including allies) are likely to formally elect their leader tomorrow after the Central leadership's nod.
Sources said one way of addressing the challenge of finding a suitable chief minister will be to swear in a person who will be like a puppet in the hands of Delhi’s top leadership. This may to a great extent help the BJP fulfill promises it has made in its ‘sankalpa patra’ or manifesto. Another and more appropriate way of building on the party’s UP victory in preparation for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be to find a person who is capable of taking along all those sections of society who have not only just ensured the party’s landslide victory in the just concluded assembly polls.
Does the BJP have among its UP leaders a person who commands the respect of all and sundry in the party? This is one question that the BJP’s top leaders including Shah and Modi will have to find an answer to as they meet to find the party’s next chief minister for the country’s most populous and backward state that also returns the maximum number of Lok Sabha MPs to Parliament.
Rajnath Singh when asked by reporters in the Parliament complex today about his chances of shifting to Lucknow, quipped in Hindi ‘Faltu baat hain (needless speculation)." However, there were reports later in the day that said Singh’s security staff had visited the official residence of the UP Chief Minister at 5, Kalidas Marg in Lucknow.
The choice could also be Keshav Prasad Maurya, a Most Backward Caste or MBC having less friction with upper castes who played an important role in the BJP's win, or Manoj Sinha an MTech and Bhumihar Brahmin, Lucknow Mayor Dinesh Sharma a low-profile Brahmin leader, Rajnath Singh or a surprise candidate only Amit Shah and Narendra Modi may know about.