Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah may visit Uttar Pradesh every month

The BJP is still in two minds about projecting its chief ministerial candidate.

With Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for early next year, BJP president Amit Shah is likely to visit the state every month to discuss election-related strategies, meet cadres as well as appeal to voters to bring the saffron party to power in this politically crucial state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also an MP from Varanasi, could also visit the state every month. Another senior leader that the party’s poll strategists want visiting the state every month is Union home minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh. The saffron party is also planning to announce its candidates as soon as possible so that candidates can get enough time to campaign in their respective constituencies.

Though the BJP had won 71 out of a total 80 parliamentary constituencies in the state, political pundits say the real electoral battle will be fought between Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Ms Mayawati’s BSP.

In a bid to energise the party, the BJP high command is all set to weed out the veterans, being dubbed as “old faces”.

The BJP’s firebrand minister, Ms Smriti Irani, is expected to play a key role for the party in the state and could be given an important task in the election management committee. Besides Ms Irani, other leaders who could be included in the committee are Union minister Mahesh Sharma and senior leader Swatantra Dev Singh.

Sources disclosed that the BJP is in two minds about projecting its chief ministerial candidate ahead of the elections. Though a leadership crisis is one of the main issues, factionalism is another issue that could come in the way of an early projection of a CM candidate. Also, a section within the state unit wants an upper-caste CM candidate as the party had recently named an OBC, Mr Keshav Prasad Maurya, as its new state unit chief.