Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, lok Sabha MP from Varanasi, is being given “a choice” to contest from Kanpur and it has been “left on him to take a decision”.
According to sources, senior State leader Kalraj Mishra may be asked to contest either from Srawasthi or Jaunpur lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh. BJP president Rajnath Singh will be fielded from lucknow, shifting from his currently held lok Sabha seat of Ghaziabad.
Asked whether BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is set to contest from Varanasi, they said by contesting from the constituency he may “influence 40 to 50 lok Sabha seats” in and around Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
“Several constituencies of UP and Bihar would be at the striking distance,” sources said when quizzed if BJP Prime Ministerial candidate may move from Gujarat to Uttar Pradesh to contest the lok Sabha poll.
As about Joshi shifting to Kanpur, they said the lok Sabha seat was “safe” given that the sitting Congress MP and Union Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal was facing over a decade-long anti-incumbency.
This apart, they said, Kanpur lok Sabha
constituency is dominated by
upper caste Brahmins and BSP has fielded a Muslim candidate from the seat.
It is understood that the former BJP president has yet not reconciled to the
idea of contesting from
outside Varanasi.
Central Election Committee of the BJP will meet on Saturday and the second list of the party lok Sabha candidates is expected to be released on the day. The third, the biggest list of the candidates, would be released on March 13.
Besides Nitin Gadkari, who is to contest from Nagpur, the first list of the BJP released last week did not include any top guns of the party. Veteran Party leader lK Advani has expressed interest for contesting from Gandhinagar.