Rae Bareilly poll: Katiyar backs off

The BJP appears to be in a fix over selecting its nominee against Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who will contest the Rae Bareilly byelection on May 8 even as names of former Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar and TV bahu Smriti Irani have been doing the rounds as possible candidates.

The main criterion for selecting a candidate is not whether he/she can defeat Gandhi "" the result is a foregone conclusion "" but to choose someone who is capable of polling more votes than the Uma Bharati-backed candidate, Pratibha Lodhi.

According to sources in the BJP, party President Rajnath Singh met former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and spoke to leader of the Opposition L K Advani, both of whom plumped for former Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar as the man for the job. Katiyar is an OBC, the same as Pratibha Lodhi, and a face for the party in Uttar Pradesh.

There was only one hitch in the plan; Katiyar refused the offer. "After the debacle of the party in the Lok Sabha elections, Katiyar feels that if he ends up polling less votes than Uma Bharati's candidate, his comeback in the party will be marred," said a top party source. Katiyar's refusal has thus forced the party to consider other options.

Manoj Pandey, the head of the party unit at the municipal level in Rae Bareilly, is being seriously considered as a candidate. "He is a local man and his hold at the grassroots level, plus the fact that there is a significant Brahmin vote in the constituency, make him an attractive candidate," said a source.

Hridaynath Dikshit, the party's spokesperson in Uttar Pradesh, is also in the running because of the large number of Brahmin votes in the constituency. Another candidate being considered is ex-armyman B N Singh, a prominent BJP leader in the state.

"The main issue is that the candidate should be able to poll more votes than Pratibha Lodhi, since Sonia Gandhi's election is a foregone conclusion,'' said a top source.

Uma Bharati had earlier asked the BJP and like-minded parties to support a common candidate against Gandhi for the byelection in Rae Bareilly. She had felt that a combined independent candidate would be able to give a good fight to Gandhi. The BJP, however, declined the offer, saying it wanted nothing to do with Bharati.