Raipur (West) MlA and PWD Minister Rajesh Munat could join the civic poll fray as a ‘surprise contender’ for Raipur city’s Mayoral post, BJP sources here informed.
Munat, it was learnt, is backed by about a dozen party leaders and some senior ministers in the State Cabinet to throw his hat in the ring for the Mayoral post.
However, some party leaders believe that being close to Chief Minister Raman Singh and holding key responsibilities like the ongoing Kamal Vihar project, Munat may not to get permission to join the race for the Mayoral post.
Meanwhile, the State BJP Election Committee is already busy with deliberations while seeking feedback for selection of the Raipur city’s Mayoral candidate.
The activities for civic polls gained momentum after Diwali and to start with, the BJP’s Raipur unit organised a workers convention at Indoor Stadium in the city on Monday.
With leaders motivating the workers for the elections, about a dozen interested candidates have started activities to get candidature for the post of the Mayor of Raipur city.
The prominent among the probable candidates is PWD Minister and Raipur (West) MlA Rajesh Munat who had earlier expressed his desire to contest for the Mayoral post.
Sources said that deliberations are going on in the party for the Raipur Mayoral candidate and former Mayor Sunil Soni is also among the probable names.
Soni belongs to backward class community and close to Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal and Higher Education Minister Prem Prakash Pandey.
However, some senior party leaders are not in favour of giving chance to a reserve category candidate on an unreserved seat. It was during the tenure of Soni as Mayor, the party had lost the seat and also failed to secure majority in the House.
Chairman of the Raipur Municipal Corporation Sanjay Srivastava, Chaganlal Mundra, leader of Opposition Subhash Tiwari, District President Ashok Pandey and President of party’s Business Cell Kedarnath Gupta are the other names in discussion, sources said.
Srivastava is being considered as Chief Minister’s choice with support of Speaker of State Assembly Gaurishanker Agrawal. However, the three MlAs of Raipur including Brijmohan Agrawal, Rajesh Munat and Shrichand Sundrani are not in favour of Srivastava, sources said.
Sundrani is advocating for Mundra while Subhash Tiwari is the second choice of Brijmohan Agrawal. BJP District President Ashok Pandey is claiming ticket expecting support from some Ministers including Munat. His supporters claim that if Munat remains out of the contest, Pandey will be the Mayoral candidate. Similar claims are made by the supporter of Mundra.
Among the others, the name of BJP State Vice President Sachchidanand Upasane is also in being propped up by his supporters. Kedarnath Gupta is expecting support from two Ministers. The others names in discussion include Prafulla Vishwakarma and Govardhan Khandelwal, sources said.
Senior leaders of the party said that the selection of candidate will be done by the party’ election committee. Discussions are going on and the candidate will be finalized very soon.