Will Modi contest from UP?
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections either from Varanasi or Lucknow, according to feedback received by the Congress party after his victory in the Gujarat Assembly elections.
“If Narendra Modi wants to become a national leader or the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, then he has to contest from Uttar Pradesh, and take it from me, he will fight either from Varanasi or from Lucknow,” an AICC official said here Saturday.
Significantly, both seats have been won by the BJP in the current Lok Sabha. While senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, Lalji Tandon won the Lucknow seat after former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee retired from active politics. On the other hand, BJP veteran L.K. Advani has been winning from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat.
Asked whether Mr Modi would play the Hindutva card in UP, where the Samajwadi Party and the BSP are the main players, the leader felt it would be possible only if the Gujarat CM fights from Varanasi, adding that it is a holy place for Hindus.
Mr Modi, who has attracted top industrial houses, has been playing the Hindutva, governance and OBC cards simultaneously. A leader (PM candidate) has to be accepted by the Hindi heartland or else he is either politically short-lived, like H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral, or remains a lightweight.
According to a “Mandalite” leader from the Hindi heartland, Mr Modi would be seen as an OBC leader outside Gujarat and this could help the BJP politically in the general election. Asked would it not consolidate minorities behind the Congress at the national level, the leader said minority votes would be divided between the secular regional players, such as the SP, BSP, JD(U), Trinamul Congress, AIADMK, Left, BJD and others.
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