The Bharatiya Janata Party may give ticket to Sangeet Som, the party legislator from Meerut who was booked under NSA for inciting riot in western UP, from Muzaffarnagar parliamentary constituency.
Sources in the party told The Pioneer here on Friday that Som’s name might find mention in the first list of UP’s candidates expected to be released in New Delhi on Saturday. It is believed that the first list might contain names of 23 candidates including some sitting member of parliament.
Qadir Rana from BSP is the sitting MP from Muzaffarnagar.
Som along with Suresh Rana, law maker from Prabudh Nagar were arrested for their alleged role in inciting communal hatred that led to riots in Shamli and Muzaffarnagar in August last. The Samajwadi Party Government also invoked NSA against the two but the charges could not stand the judicial scrutiny.
Sources claim that there is a demand among party leaders to field party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from Uttar Pradesh. The argument put forth by the leaders is that if party wants to win anything between 45 and 50 seats Modi will have to contest election from Uttar Pradesh. Otherwise, the party would be reduced between 25 and 30 seats.
BJP state president Dr laxmi Kant Bajpai refused to reveal as who would be party candidates. "We have sent the list of probable candidates to the Parliamentary Board and it will have to take a final decision regarding this," he said and added: "The state unit has included all the sitting MPs in the list."
This means the there would be no change in candidates of lucknow and Varanasi - two constituencies which are expected to witness a change in candidates. It is expected that Narendra Modi would contest from Varanasi and the sitting MP Dr Murli Manohar Joshi might be asked to shift his base to Kanpur. A few days back Joshi supporters tore posters of Narendra Modi showing their resentment against this possible move.
"No such incident happened in Varanasi. I deny this," Dr Bajpai said. "I do not know Modi will contest from Varanasi or lucknow. Only the Parliamentary Board the has the answer to this query," he said.