UP polls: Finding right CM candidate a big challenge for BJP

It was an extremely important meeting in Bhopal on August 25. Apart from BJP president Amit Shah, RSS' Bhaiyaji Joshi and Krishna Gopal were in attendance. The meeting was important because it was to take an extremely important decision - should the BJP enter the all-important Uttar Pradesh polls with a face or without a face? Later on, it was decided that in all likelihood the BJP will go with a chief ministerial face but not without due diligence.

There is going to be a proper survey done in this regard. Two sets of surveys will be conducted - one by the RSS and another by the BJP. Once the result of the surveys is out, only then will the party, in consultation with the RSS, take a decision.

The BJP has been grappling with this problem of having a chief ministerial face for quite a while now. It knows that there are various factions within the party which are competent enough to sabotage the party's prospect in their respective areas, if their factions are denied the honour of having the chief ministerial candidate.

Also read: Revealing BJP's game plan for 2017 UP polls

One group within the party is of the opinion that instead of going with a chief ministerial face, which will only encourage blatant factionalism, the party should go without any and let the performance of the top four-five contenders be judged on the number of seats they are able to win for the party and the kind of positive influence they have been.

The party also saw a glimpse of what this faction has been saying during the national executive held in Allahabad. The whole city was plastered with the posters of Varun Gandhi. Something which didn't go down too well with the party leadership. Apart from this, there has been an open assertion by the Yogi Adityanath group saying that he is the fittest for being the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP.

Also read: BJP is making it easier for Mayawati to win UP polls

The second faction feels that time has come for the party to not repeat the errors of the last two Vidhan Sabha elections where they fought without chief ministerial candidates and barely reached 50 seats. This faction also points out that the three other main parties - BSP, Samajwadi Party and even Congress - are all entering the poll fray with chief ministerial candidates. They feel that the party should declare its chief ministerial candidate in the next month or so and this faction's view is more or less the dominant view in the party as of now.

But who should be the the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP? Somebody who not only has an appeal across the state but also has the stature to take on both Mayawati as well as Mulayam Singh Yadav/ Akhilesh Yadav. Initially, there were rumours that the party had more or less made up its mind on choosing Union home minister Rajnath Singh. But this rumour was quashed by Rajnath himself, as he is well aware of the perils of fishing in a state where stakes are uncertain.

Then there are potential candidates like Smriti Irani, Varun Gandhi, Yogi Adityanath, Mahesh Sharma, and even Uttar Pradesh BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya.

There is also a section which feels that if the party is able to whip up a wave in the next couple of months, then it can also do a Haryana and Maharashtra, where they defied conventional caste considerations and the politics of satraps and went ahead with the likes of Manohar Lal Khattar and Devendra Fadnavis respectively.

Another problem which the party will be facing is that if the internal surveys throw up the name of say Varun Gandhi or Adityanath, will it actually go ahead and anoint them? The Varun camp claims that in an earlier such survey, he emerged as the party's top choice.

The search is on for the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh.