JULY 3- Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may contest the Lok Sabha polls from Lucknow or Allahabad. This was revealed by Rameshwar Chaurasia of Uttar Pradesh BJP while addressing a meeting of the party in Varanasi on Tuesday.
“Modi is a popular leader and he would win from anywhere. But he may contest from Lucknow or Allahabad,” he said.
Sources said party president Rajnath Singh has decided to field his son Pankaj Singh from Varanasi. It is also believed that BJP MP from Varanasi Murli Manohar Joshi is aware that he won’t be able to win from there for the second time and is looking for a new option. A senior BJP leader said it was none other than Rajnath who was silently creating hurdles in the way to Modi.
“Modi is a symbol of Hindutva. His presence in UP, politically the most vibrant state with maximum Lok Sabha seats, could easily polarise Hindu votes in favour of the BJP. But Rajnath has recently tried to dilute Modi’s plan by announcing that he was in favour of inclusive politics and would prefer to take the Muslims into confidence. It is also believed that he wants to leave the Ghaziabad seat and contest from Lucknow. This means he is silently trying to keep Modi at bay and at the same time present himself as a liberal face of the party so that he will be acceptable as a prime ministerial candidate in future,” he said.
However, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, spokesperson of UP BJP, said, “There is no difference of opinion in the party on any issue. Our senior leaders are together in chalking out the election strategy. It is also true that a large number of BJP supporters and workers want Modi to contest from Lucknow or any other important seat in UP. But there is a process to decide everything in a democratic party.”
