…May field UP Speaker, keep JD(U) happy for Bihar shortfall

The other candidates from the constituency include Shivakant Ojha and Rajendra Singh alias Moti Singh — MLAs from Beerapur and Patti constituencies of Pratapgarh, respectively. Machhlishahar comprises Assembly segments from Pratapgarh and Jaunpur districts.

If the BJP high command decides to put up a candidate against former PM Chandra Shekhar, the ticket is likely to go to Bachha Pathak of the breakaway Loktantrik Congress.

Sources disclosed that UP BJP chief Vinay Katiyar has abandoned his Faizabad constituency for Lakhimpur Kheri, fearing defeat at the hands of prospective BSP candidate Mitra Sen Yadav.

The central election committee shot down the state unit proposal to drop sitting Aligarh MP Sheela Gautam. Sources said most members wished to know why was the state unit keen on dropping a woman MP. With no convincing answer forthcoming, Gautam was alloted the ticket.

The party is also likely to leave three LS constituencies in the Uttar Pradesh for the Janata Dal (United), sources disclosed here today. The move is designed to break the impasse between the two parties in Bihar following the JD(U)’s refusal to part with Sheohar and Muzaffarpur seats.

The BJP staked its claim over them on the ground that Mohammad Anwar-ul-Haque and Jai Narain Prasad Nishad, who represented Sheohar and Muzaffarpur respectively in the dissolved Lok Sabha, have since joined its ranks. The JD(U), on the other hand, contends that both fall in its quota.

Sources in the JD(U) said that they were prepared to scale down their demand from 23 out of 40 seats in Bihar to 20, provided the BJP agreed to give them two seats in UP and one in Jharkhand. The BJP may accommodate the JD(U) in UP. Once it is done, both parties would clinch the Bihar deal at 20 seats each.