<p>Union Minister Manoj Sinha seems to be the frontrunner for the post of chief minister in Uttar Pradesh.<br /><br />The BJP’s top decision-making body on Sunday authorised party chief Amit Shah to select the chief ministerial candidates for UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.<br /><br />Other names doing the rounds are BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, Union Minister Santosh Gangwar and Lucknow Mayor Dinesh Sharma, among others. <br />According to sources, the four new governments would be installed after Holi, which is being celebrated on Monday. <br /><br />The ruling Akali Dal-BJP coalition lost to the Congress in Punjab.<br /><br />Sinha’s style of working, performance in the ministry of railways and telecom and his IIT background appears to have given him an edge over the other contenders. <br /> <br />At the BJP parliamentary board meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah and senior leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, it was decided to send observers to interact with the newly elected MLAs for selecting probable chief ministerial candidates in the four states. <br /><br />Briefing the media after the meeting, Union Minister J P Nadda said the observers will submit their reports to Shah. <br /><br />Who went where <br />While senior minister M Venkaiah Naidu and party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav will interact with BJP’s 312 MLAs in Lucknow, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party leader Saroj Pandey will head to Dehradun to interact with legislators to identify their leader for the chief minister’s post. <br /><br />Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is already in Goa, and according to party sources, Modi has given his nod to release Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to head the government in Panjim.<br /><br />Union Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe will carry out the same exercise in Manipur. <br /><br />Earlier, in his address to party workers, Shah said the BJP will get an even bigger mandate in 2019, greater than the one in the 2014 general elections. <br /><br />“The win in the five-state Assembly elections is bigger than our victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. We will get a bigger mandate in 2019,” Shah told the gathering at the party’s Ashoka Road headquarters here.<br /></p>
<p>Union Minister Manoj Sinha seems to be the frontrunner for the post of chief minister in Uttar Pradesh.<br /><br />The BJP’s top decision-making body on Sunday authorised party chief Amit Shah to select the chief ministerial candidates for UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.<br /><br />Other names doing the rounds are BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, Union Minister Santosh Gangwar and Lucknow Mayor Dinesh Sharma, among others. <br />According to sources, the four new governments would be installed after Holi, which is being celebrated on Monday. <br /><br />The ruling Akali Dal-BJP coalition lost to the Congress in Punjab.<br /><br />Sinha’s style of working, performance in the ministry of railways and telecom and his IIT background appears to have given him an edge over the other contenders. <br /> <br />At the BJP parliamentary board meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah and senior leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, it was decided to send observers to interact with the newly elected MLAs for selecting probable chief ministerial candidates in the four states. <br /><br />Briefing the media after the meeting, Union Minister J P Nadda said the observers will submit their reports to Shah. <br /><br />Who went where <br />While senior minister M Venkaiah Naidu and party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav will interact with BJP’s 312 MLAs in Lucknow, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party leader Saroj Pandey will head to Dehradun to interact with legislators to identify their leader for the chief minister’s post. <br /><br />Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is already in Goa, and according to party sources, Modi has given his nod to release Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to head the government in Panjim.<br /><br />Union Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe will carry out the same exercise in Manipur. <br /><br />Earlier, in his address to party workers, Shah said the BJP will get an even bigger mandate in 2019, greater than the one in the 2014 general elections. <br /><br />“The win in the five-state Assembly elections is bigger than our victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. We will get a bigger mandate in 2019,” Shah told the gathering at the party’s Ashoka Road headquarters here.<br /></p>
