The BJP may have ensured its dispensations in Goa and Manipur, but it is still taking its time to select the Chief Ministers for the key States of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, with the possibility of announcements to the effect even spilling over to early next week not being ruled out.
In the meantime, the BJP has issued a three-line whip in the lok Sabha for March 16, 17 and 20 to get the General Budget passed in Parliament.
This, BJP sources said, was to ensure that its MPs from both the States remain in Delhi and attend the ongoing session instead of being in their respective home States and being engaged in the Government-formation exercises.
Consultations for the selection of the new CM of UP are underway in Delhi after the BJP Parliamentary Board on Sunday appointed senior leaders M Venkaiah Naidu and Bhupender Yadav as observers for the State. Both the leaders would be leaving for lucknow soon, sources said without specifying the date.
However, the sources maintained that the process may come to a logical conclusion as early as Saturday.
Party president Amit Shah has been authorised by the Parliamentary Board to take a final decision on the selection of CMs of the respective States after observers submit their reports.
In the highly caste-polarised UP, the BJP has to keep the caste mathematics in mind before electing the CM. One of the posts — Chief Minister, State president and Speaker — has to be given to an upper caste nominee, given their numbers and their traditional support to the BJP in the State.
However, the strong backing by non-Yadav-OBCs to the BJP in the Assembly polls could very well sway the party to elect an OBC as a CM.
The names doing the rounds for the CM’s post in UP include Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the tallest leader of the BJP in the State and who was at the helm of affairs in the State from 2000-2002.
However, the big question is whether he is ready to swap his Union Home Ministry with the CM’s post or not.
Rajnath, on Wednesday, himself scorned and rubbish the talk of his moving to lucknow to take charge of the State. But there was a buzz about his personal security staff taking stock of the CM’s residence in lucknow.
Current UP BJP unit president and senior party leader Keshav Prasad Maurya, an OBC, has been one of the most talked about names for the CM’s post, even before the beginning of the polls.
He is also known to be close to Amit Shah.
The BJP’s outspoken face in UP, Yogi Adityanath, also has his name on the list of probables. A prominent figure of Purvanchal, he has been representing the lok Sabha constituency of Gorakhpur since 1998.
Another strong contender could be Minister of State for Telecom and Railways, Manoj Sinha, a Bhumihar. He is currently the MP from Ghazipur constituency.
For Uttarakhand, Satpal Maharaj, the former Congress leader who switched over to the BJP in 2014 and former State Ministers Prakash Pant and Trivendra Singh Rawat are the front runners for the top job. But for his election defeat from Ranikhet, State president Ajay Bhat could also have been a CM candidate.