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BJP to finalise 150 Lok Sabha candidates

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party will soon begin the process of finalising candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

A senior party leader associated with the management of elections has indicated that a meeting of the BJP’s Central Election Committee would be called in late June or early July — ahead of the start of the monsoon session of Parliament — and by the end of August candidates for roughly 150 seats would be finalised.

The view in the party is that by declaring its prime ministerial candidate well ahead of time, it would be able to get an additional advantage if it were to finalise its “faces” for specific constituencies. The prospective candidates would also get additional time to woo the voters.

Keeping a close watch on the Congress camp, a senior party leader said the BJP had concluded that the Congress would not name its prime ministerial candidate, and that would be advantageous for the BJP. Some senior party leaders have already zeroed in on their preferences keeping in mind the changes in the geographical and social spread of constituencies following delimitation.

It seems party president Rajnath Singh may contest the Lok Sabha election, although currently he is in the Rajya Sabha. Informed party leaders have hinted that Mr. Singh may opt for Ghaziabad, which after delimitation has become a more urban seat than it used to be.

While the Leader of Opposition, L. K. Advani, is expected to contest from his own constituency Gandhinagar, party veteran Murli Manohar Joshi is likely to abandon Allahabad for Varanasi and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh could move from Bulandshahr to Etah. It seems Maneka Gandhi has signalled to the party leadership that she would like to contest from Aonla, leaving her own constituency Pilibhit for her son Varun Gandhi. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, one of the few Muslim faces the BJP has, could get to contest from Rampur.

As for Lucknow, no one in the party is willing to say anything for it was not hundred per cent certain that the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will not contest again. “There is no word from him as yet,” said a senior leader. He also added that if Mr. Vajpayee shows a preference for any specific candidate for his old constituency, the party leadership would not go against his wishes.

Two senior leaders currently in the Rajya Sabha — Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj — may both test their luck at the hustings. Mr. Jaitley is said to be looking closely at Palampur in Himachal Pradesh (his other options could be a seat in Punjab, Gujarat or Delhi). It was in Palampur where the party had first adopted a resolution on a Ram temple at Ayodhya and brought it firmly on its political agenda. Ms. Swaraj could be looking at a constituency in Delhi.

The BJP has started doing its homework for the next big political battle. It has hired agencies to survey constituencies to find out where it is strong and where it is weak, to learn about the strength of its rivals and also to independently ascertain which candidate is likely to find favour with the electorate. Simultaneously work on slogans, themes and issues has also begun — inflation and terrorism, it seems, will find pride of place.

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