Jaitely to contest, Sushma and Naidu won’t

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitely is likely to contest the Lok Sabha polls while his peers Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu will opt out to undertake a nationwide election campaign, reports Shekhar Iyer.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitely is likely to contest the Lok Sabha polls while his peers Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu will opt out to undertake a nationwide election campaign.

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Jaitely may be fielded from New Delhi so that he could also be available to the party to supervise media-related poll work, Naidu said on Thursday. Jaitely had hitherto parried question on the issue, saying, "when a decision is taken by the party, it will be known."

Naidu said though his supporters had wanted him to contest from Nellore, which had become a de-reserved seat, he preferred to stay put most in Delhi to handle the campaign management work "as asked by Rajnath Singh."

Sushma Swaraj had said a few days ago that L K Advani had asked her not to contest the polls as she would be required for the nationwide campaign. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi too has been told by Advani to campaign extensively for the party.

The BJP has announced the candidatures of Rajnath Singh from Ghaziabad and Murli Manohar Joshi from Varanasi.

Naidu also informed that a decision on BJP's nominee for Lucknow, the seat held by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the outgoing House, would be taken when the party's election committee meets on January 28 and 29.

Naidu, said a conference of BJP chief ministers would also be held on January to discuss the election strategy.