Rajnath Singh says discussion over his nomination for UP CM post ‘unnecessary’

Home minister Rajnath Singh junked on Wednesday rumours over his possible appointment as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

“These discussions are futile and unnecessary,” the 65-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party leader told news agency ANI.

BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi said the party’s central leadership will appoint a very capable person as the CM.

Joshi, who won the Lucknow Cantonment seat by beating Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh’s younger daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, said the BJP had several talented leaders.

“We are holding a meeting on 16, where the advice of all MLAs will be sought and the national leadership will decide (on the candidate). We have made huge promises to the people of the state and we must fulfill them,” she said.

The Uttar Pradesh BJP legislature party will meet in Lucknow on Friday to decide the CM.

The party is set to return to power in the state after a decade and a half following its landslide victory.

The party’s central observers, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, will be present at the meeting.

The names of several probables, including home minister Singh who led a BJP government in the state in the past, were doing the rounds at the state party office.

Though Singh, 65, is still regarded as a good choice for the key post given his vast experience and popularity, he appears reluctant about shifting back to state politics.

Singh’s had earlier reacted to a journalist’s query saying “Ram, Ram”, remark that many interpreted as a show of his unwillingness to return to UP politics.

Another name doing the rounds is that of Manoj Sinha (57), the minister of state for railways.

An upper caste Bhumihar, he belongs to Poorvanchal, the area which is in the focus of the BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi constituency is also part of Poorvanchal.