BJP to decide today if Jaitley, Naqvi will contest polls

With the BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) set to meet tomorrow to consider the names of party candidates for 70-odd Lok Sabha seats, spe...

With the BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) set to meet tomorrow to consider the names of party candidates for 70-odd Lok Sabha seats, speculation was revived here today on the possibility of senior party functionaries jumping into the fray.

BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu, after ruling out his own candidature, had put cold water on the idea of fielding at least three leaders — Health Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and general secretary Pramod Mahajan — in the polls. Thereafter, general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was also understood to have been placed in the same category.

The logic behind this decision was that being the party’s key campaigners, the services of these leaders were needed for the campaign, and once in the fray, they were sure to be pinned to their constituencies.

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The latest speculation has been sparked off by the fact that the high command has cleared names for two of the three seats falling in its quota in Punjab under an agreement with the Akali Dal. The sole seat left out is Amritsar for which Jaitley’s name is doing the rounds. The Law Minister traces his roots to Amritsar. Besides, it was none other than Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal who had mooted his name for the seat.

Jaitley’s name is also doing the rounds for Bhopal. Having been in charge of the last Assembly polls in MP, it was but natural that Jaitley’s name would crop up for the seat.

It is for the same reason that Pramod Mahajan’s name has gained currency for Jaipur constituency. Mahajan was in-charge of Rajasthan in the Assembly polls. The entire Rajasthan list will come up at tomorrow’s CEC meeting. Naqvi, who had won from Rampur in 1996, has been nursing the constituency since then.

There is no urgency involved in any of these leaders contesting for the Lok Sabha polls, for all of them are RS members. However, none can fault Jaitley if he wants to prove his popularity by making a debut in a direct election. Similar is the case with Mahajan and Naqvi. Tomorrow’s meeting may end the suspense.