Name of Jaitley doing rounds for Pilibhit seat ahead of BJP meeting

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 8

Ahead of the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting, speculations have started on the possible names in the first list that is expected after the meeting on Friday. 

Interestingly, some of the surprise names in the list are that of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is believed to have been selected to contest the Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency currently held by Union Minister Maneka Gandhi. 

Jaitley had unsuccessfully contested from Amritsar in the last elections, being among the very few who lost despite the “Modi wave” in the country.

The other names in the “list of 24 names” doing the rounds in the BJP circles are that of state UP ministers Srikant Sharma for Mathura instead of actress-turned-politician Hema Malini, who is said to be considered for Fatehpur Sikri and SP Singh Baghel from Firozabad. Veteran Murli Manohar Joshi is said to be the likely candidate for Sultanpur instead of sitting MP Varun Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi’s son and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s cousin. 

Meanwhile, the name of the controversial Sardhana legislator Sangeet Som is doing rounds for key constituency in the Jat stronghold of RLD’s Ajit Singh—Baghpat—and that of Shaurya Doval, son of the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, from Kanpur, the seat currently held by Joshi.

The other names in the list of speculated candidates ahead of the crucial meeting include Rajeev Lakhanpal (Saharanpur), sitting MP VK Singh from Ghaziabad and Sanjeev Balyan from Muzaffarnagar, sitting MLA Kunwar Bhartendra Singh from Bijnor and sitting MP Naipal Singh from Rampur. 

Union Minister Smriti Irani is the expected BJP candidate from Amethi, against Congress chief Rahul Gandh. In the last elections, she had given a good fight to the Congress scion in his bastion.