NEW DELHI: The first list of Bharatiya Janata Party's candidates for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls includes the names of 58 sitting MLAs and almost as many former MLAs.

While the party's state unit president Kesri Nath Tripathi will contest the Allahabad South seat, the Leader of the BJP legislature party, Lalji Tandon, will once again test the electoral waters from the Lucknow West constituency. Another senior leader from the State, Om Prakash Singh, will once again contest from Chunar.

The former Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh, will not contest the polls, but party leaders have made it clear that if the BJP were to form a government in the State, he would be the party's choice for the chief ministerial position. Mr. Singh, who is also the prabhari of Uttar Pradesh, the man in-charge of the State election, has been successful in getting a ticket for his daughter-in-law Prem Lata Verma for his former seat Atrauli, while his son Rajbir Singh, a sitting MLA, will once again try his electoral luck from Dibai.

The BJP Central Election Committee, which met here for five-and-a-half hours on Wednesday night — the list of 316 was finalised and released after 11 p.m. — recommended a ticket for Pankaj Singh, son of party chief Rajnath Singh, from Chiraigaon. Apparently, he has been working for the party in that area and his was the only name recommended by the State unit for that seat. However, Pankaj Singh later said that while he was grateful to the party for giving him the ticket, he preferred to decline it. He would continue to work for the party, he added. While some see this as political theatre, it seems that he may not be persuaded to contest. Those close to Mr. Rajnath Singh feel that a wrong signal would be sent, as it would be construed that the party chief managed a ticket for his son.

A prominent party leader Ramnath Kovind, a former MP who earlier headed the party's Scheduled Caste Morcha, will contest the Bheganipur Assembly segment.

Party leaders said that it would give away about 50 seats to its two alliance partners in the State — around 35 seats to the Apna Dal and 12 to 14 seats for the Janata Dal (United). As a result of this alliance there is some unrest in the party cadre in the eastern part of the State where most of these seats are to be given to alliance partners. The party MP from Gorakhpur, Aditya Nath, made some noises of protest on Thursday saying he had resigned from the BJP national executive.

The BJP has tried to accommodate a large number of candidates of Other Backward Castes, hoping to attract them in large numbers to the party. Mr. Kalyan Singh, projected as the chief minister, is himself a backward caste leader of `lodhs', while the party is hoping to attract the kurmi vote because of its alliance with the Apna Dal.

At the same time the party leadership realises that its core voter support base was among the upper caste Hindus. The announcement of candidates by the Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati, who has given a sizeable chunk of ticket to Brahmins, has somewhat shaken the BJP, which is hoping that this would not lure the Brahmin vote away from it.

It seems that the BJP leadership offered the ticket for Mirzapur Lok Sabha seat — which fell vacant when a BSP MP was disqualified in the cash-for-questions scandal — to Varun Gandhi, son of party MP Maneka Gandhi who represents Pilibhit. But Mr. Gandhi does not seem to be in the mood to accept that offer, having been denied a ticket earlier from the Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh. In any case, the party has not yet declared its candidate for this seat.

Of a total of 403 seats, the BJP has declared 316 candidates, with a question mark on one seat — Pankaj Singh for Chiraigaon. About 50 seats have been kept for allies and the remaining 37 to 38 seats will be declared later.

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