LUCKNOW: All eyes are on the BJP’s choice of candidate for Rae Bareli after the exit of former AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and the buzz of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra replacing her mother in the Gandhi family stronghold. Various names are doing the rounds as the possible BJP candidate for the Rae Bareli seat which did not figure in the first list of 51 candidates released by the ruling party on Saturday for the Lok Sabha polls.
BJP probables are waiting with bated breath for the second list of candidates for the remaining 29 seats of Uttar Pradesh, which include seven — Moradabad, Rae Bareli, Bijnor, Ghazipur, Mainpuri, Saharanpur and Ghazipur — where the ruling party had lost to the SP-BSP grand alliance in 2019.
The BJP had fielded candidates in 27 of those remaining 29 seats in 2019 and had won 20, including Prayagraj, Bareilly, Sultanpur, Kaiserganj, Bahraich, Deoria, Ballia, Machhalisahar, Kanpur, Firozabad, Hathras, Aligarh, Badaun, Meerut, Kaushambi, Baghpat, Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Pilibhit and Bhadohi.
The political experts feel that the BJP would tread cautiously in Rae Bareli and is likely to reveal its cards only after the announcement of opposition candidates including those of the Congress and the BSP. However, the names of SP turncoat Manoj Pandey, who had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha election in favour of the BJP candidate, and BJP MLC and Yogi minister Dinesh Pratap Singh are doing the rounds.
Moreover, an equal amount of suspense prevails over two other seats having sitting members of the Gandhi family — Sultanpur and Pilibhit — which are represented by Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun respectively in the Lok Sabha.
