Lucknow, Mar 01: The Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party is yet to finalise the probable candidates for the Lok Sabha polls to be held in April-May next with extra caution being taken to field only suitable candidates. The leaders have expressed willingness to give candidature to senior party leaders from some prestigious seats to guarantee BJP's win from these constituencies. During the 1999 Lok Sabha elections in the state, the BJP had won 29 seats out of the 84 seats with a huge loss of 28 seats from the 1998 elections when the party had emerged victorious on 57 seats. Therefore, this time the party is not in a mood to take any chances and wants to ensure a ''good show'' in the Lok Sabha elections. Discussions to this effect was held during the core group meeting here yesterday but a final decision could not be achieved. According to party sources, leaders like Mr Kalraj Mishra, Union Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh, Mr Om Prakash Singh and even Mr Lalji Tandon's name came up for discussion as probable candidature.
However, later the decision to make the leaders candidature from the seats was left to the central leadership.
The meeting suggested the possibility of fielding Mr Kalyan Singh from Farrukkhabad or Bulandshahr, Kalraj Mishra from Varanasi, Rajnath Singh from Chandauli, Lalji Tandon from Unnao or Kanpur, Om Prakash Singh from Mirzapur, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi from Rampur and Vinay Katiyar from Faizabad.

The leaders did not discuss the candidature of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajapyee from Lucknow, Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi from Allahabad and Union Minister of State for home Swami Chinymayanand from Jaunpur.
Bureau Report