The BJP will hold a meeting of its central election committee here on Tuesday wherein it will decide upon the Lok Sabha candidates for UP, Kerala, Goa, Daman and Diu.
NEW DELHI: The BJP will hold a meeting of its central election committee here on Tuesday wherein it will decide upon the Lok Sabha candidates for UP, Kerala, Goa, Daman and Diu. The party is also likely to announce the names of its 20-odd candidates from UP and plans to follow up the first meeting with a series of smaller gatherings sometime early next month with a core group of states like —Assam, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, Orissa and Maharashtra. The process had been halted since the last two months in the run-up to the trust vote and the Amarnath land row.
Lok Sabha preparations are also on to decide the candidates for the states like, Delhi, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh, where assembly elections are due in November. While the BJP is in power in the bigger states and faces an anti-incumbency set off only by the divisions in the Congress, it is seen as being in a better position in Delhi. This has sparked off another tussle — that for being the chief ministerial candidate. The post does not find favour with the man most favoured for the post, general secretary Arun Jaitley. Another noteworthy candidate, Sushma Swaraj is believed as not being keen to occupy the post. This has left leaders like Vijay Goel, Harshvardhan and Vijay Kumar Malhotra slugging it out. The party is under pressure to decide on its chief ministerial candidate soon, but the matter has been held up due to this tussle.
Harshvardhan is banking on his sober image and contacts with the Sangh Parivar. Malhotra, who has had contacts with the senior leadership longer than Harshvardhan or Goel, is projecting his veteran image. Harshvardhan, on the other hand, enjoys support as a loyal and “knowledgeable candidate”.
Goel, however, has been the most active of the three.
s_rajesh@dnaindia.net
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