Jaitley to contest Lok Sabha polls

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Supporters of Simranjit Singh Mann show black flags to senior BJP leader L.K. Advani during his Janchetna Yatra at Mehal Kalan

After having said that the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate would be from the Lok Sabha, party chief Nitin Gadkari appears to be laying the roadmap for all the top leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, to contest elections. Mr Gadkari himself intends to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Congress bastion Nagpur in Maharashtra.
Among the BJP’s front ranking leaders from the second generation, Mr Jaitley and Mr Venkaiah Naidu happen to be from the Rajya Sabha, who are often considered not to have mass following. “Arunji will contest the Lok Sabha elections. Even the Lok Sabha seat from which he will contest the next elections has been identified. But the name of the constituency will not be revealed right now, as the party will give its approval when the time comes,” said a senior BJP functionary.
Though the identity of Mr Jaitley’s Lok Sabha constituency has not been revealed, it is likely that it could be one of the seven seats from Delhi, as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha not only hails from the national capital, but also had earlier been in-charge of the city unit of the party and is known to enjoy following among party workers.
Mr Gadkari is learnt to have been nursing the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency in a bid to contest the next elections. Sources said Mr Gadkari declined earlier to get into the Rajya Sabha on the ground that he wanted to be elected by the people.
“Mr Gadkari has the option to choose any of the three Lok Sabha Seats of Nagpur, Wardha and Bhandara-Gondia, but he has more or less made up his mind in favour of Nagpur for the reason that it’s his native place,” said a senior party functionary. Nagpur happens to be a Congress bastion and the BJP has won the seat only once so far. Nagpur seat is also likely to be challenging for Mr Gadkari as Muslims and dalits constitute a large chunk of the voter base there.