The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to pick a Chief Minister for Uttar Pradesh, who will be able to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “vision” and policies effectively.
The BJP Parliamentary Board will meet on Sunday to discuss the issue of government formation in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa and chief ministerial candidates. According to BJP president Amit Shah, the Chief Ministers will be picked “purely on the basis of merit”.
“However, in all probability, the UP CM candidate would be a ‘low-profile’ person who can implement the PM’s policies and programmes effectively. Caste may not be a consideration while deciding on the name. The party would not go for mere symbolism and take a decision purely on who can deliver the best results,” sources said.
They cite the example of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, where the party decided on candidates like Devendra Fadanavis, Manohar Lal Khattar and Raghubar Das for the top job. “They were less-known faces till the time they were chosen. The strategy has worked fine and, therefore, the party wants to continue on the same lines this time too,” the source said.
While there is uncertainty over the chief ministerial candidate in UP, many names are doing the rounds, including those of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha.
However, it is believed that Rajnath Singh is not keen on taking up the assignment. A cross-section within the party also wants to see state president Keshav Prasad Maurya or Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister.
According to a few, Uma Bharti, Mahesh Sharma and Santosh Gangwar could turn out to be the dark horses.
Initially, before the Assembly elections, the party was in a fix on whether to go for a CM face. However, it finally decided to go ahead with “collective leadership” — Narendra Modi as the main campaigner, along with Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharti, Kalraj Mishra and Yogi Adityanath.
Asked whether not declaring a chief ministerial candidate would be a norm in future Assembly elections, a party leader said it would depend on a case-to-case basis. ‘Though we did not declare a CM candidate in Maharastra, Haryana and Jharkhand, we won elections there. At the same time, we declared a CM candidate in Assam, we won, but we lost in Delhi despite naming a CM candidate (Kiran Bedi). So there cannot be a uniform rule for picking a CM candidate,” he said.
In Uttarakhand, BJP state president Ajay Bhatt, Harak Singh Rawat, former CMs B.C. Khanduri, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank are in the race for the CM’s post.
In Goa, the party may send Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar once again to head the government replacing Laxmikant Parsekar, if it is able to muster a majority in the state.
CM Parsekar and six of his eight ministers have lost the elections. On the question of going back to Goa, Parrikar, at a function some time back, had said that he would follow what the party leadership would ask him to do.