BJP may not announce its chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh

Gonda (UP): The Bhartiya Janata Party ( BJP )may not announce its chief ministerial face in Uttar Pradesh. The statement by Minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha here on Tuesday may be a pointer. “We have 10 or 12 members who have the potential to become state chief minister.” he told media persons. However he would not like to name any one of them.

The Party, which faced near rout in Delhi after announcement of chief ministerial candidate before the election, may be too fresh in the party’s memory. The final call on the issue will be taken by the party high command. The party leadership has not said anything in this regard openly so far.

The minister who was here for a considerable time also talked to party workers in the district and gave certain advices to them to improve the party’s prospects.

In reply to a question on the grand alliance proposal of the Samajwadi Party, he said party chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and others in the party are concerned over it. “I do not know what he has in mind and what he will do”.

Referring to the railway budget and department’s investments in different states, he said in both the areas the present government has done a lot better than the previous ones. Uttar Pradesh was not accounting for more than Rs 1100 crore allocation. The Narendra Modi government has raised it almost four times.

The minister informed that soon about one lakh villages would be linked to high speed network. Another 50,000 villages will join the network by 2018. The defunct unit at Mankapur will be revived. The government would also like to see that it turned around and changed its cash book position.

A revival package for the unit ,which was set up in 1983 and which had manufactured the first switching system , is being worked out.