Rajesh Sinha

New Delhi: No seat seems to be safe enough for top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders from Uttar Pradesh (UP), who are having a tough time finding a “good” constituency for the Lok Sabha elections in 2009.

With former prime minister AB Vajpayee unlikely to contest, even the Lucknow seat has become unsafe. Party leaders feel the Mayawati effect has altered equations in the city.

The BJP has been surveying and studying freshly-demarcated constituencies after delimitation.

While those involved in the task claim the party should safely get at least 30-35 of the 80 seats in UP, several leaders do not seem sanguine about their fate.

There are differences between the leaders and the party over the suggested seats and between leaders wanting the same constituency.This is true for the ordinary MP right up to the top.

Party observers had earmarked Allahabad for veteran Murli Manohar Joshi, the only recommendation for the seat.

Having lost from the city the last time, Joshi has other ideas, though. He is reportedly eyeing Varanasi.

Sources said Joshi hopes to get Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ashok Singhal’s backing for the seat. The VHP had a say in deciding candidates for pilgrim places such as Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura, but its clout has declined since the heyday of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar in UP after the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

It would be difficult to get Varanasi for Joshi also because every other leader seems to want the seat.

They consider Varanasi the safest for the BJP and the first contest to be won here is within the party. Among those in the running for this constituency are party president Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj, MLA from the area Ajay Rai, party’s leader in the legislative assembly Omprakash Singh, an ex-MP from the seat Shankar Jaiswal, a former MP from Ghazipur Manoj Sinha and senior leader Kalraj Mishra. A large chunk of Mishra’s MP fund has been spent in Varanasi.

Rajnath is hunting for a constituency which he can win and silence his critics. He earlier mentioned Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh which he considered “auspicious”. Some who were elected from there went on to occupy important posts – among them were former president Shankar Dayal Sharma and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

There is also a tussle for Faizabad in Ayodhya, where again the VHP-RSS used to exercise decisive influence. The contenders battling it out within the party here are Vinay Katiyar and Ayodhya MLA Lallu Singh. Katiyar has the advantage of having represented the constituency earlier.

Source : DNA