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Kalraj Mishra might contest from Lucknow
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ASIANAGE on 04 July, 2008 02:29:20
 
By Our Correspondent
New Delhi
July 4: Senior brahmin leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Kalraj Mishra,
appears to be all set to contest from former Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee’s favourite turf, as it is expected that the Bharatiya Janata
Party’s central election committee (CEC) will put his name as the candidate
from Lucknow in its meting scheduled for July 12.
Sources in the party circle confirmed that Mr Mishra, not only managed to get
the blessings of Mr Vajpayee but also got the endorsement from party’s prime
ministerial candidate L.K. Advani.
"Advaniji is of the view that the Lucknow seat should be given to a senior
brahmin leader from Uttar Pradesh to replace Vajpayeeji on the seat," a source
said, adding, Mr Mishra stands tall among all the other brahmin leaders in the
state.
Moreover, the meeting of the party’s central election committee is convened
to announce the second list of party candidates, mostly from UP.
Approximately 30 to 40 names would be cleared at the meeting which will include
candidates for Ghaziabad, Meerut, Aydhya, Varanasi, Anwala, Pilibhit, Rampur,
Bareilly and Gorakhpur.
Interestingly, BJP president Rajnath Singh has evinced interest to contest from
Ghaziabad and if everything goes well he will contest from there. But since the
party wants to manage its affairs in a better way, the predominant thought is to
keep Mr Singh off from the fighting ground since Mr Advani is contesting,
therefore, Mr Singh should help manage the overall affairs of the party, as it
happened during the last elections with the then BJP president, M. Vainkaiah
Naidu, not contesting to oversee election preparations.
In case of Aydhya, Varanasi, Meerut and Gorakhpur and Rampur the names of Vinay
Katiyar, Murli Manohar Joshi, Satpal Malik, Aditya Nath and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
respectively have almost been finalised.
In case Ms Maneka Gandhi’s son Mr Varun Gandhi gets the party ticket, he will
contest from Pilibhit with his mother shifting to the adjoining Anwala
constituency.
Discussion on the issue of pre-poll seat adjustment in UP with JD(U) and Apna
Dal will also take place in the meting and it is expected that the two parties
will be given five and three seats respectively.