New Delhi, Dec 05: BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu will go to Raipur today to oversee the election of party candidate for the chief ministership of Chhattisgarh with Union Minister Rajnath Singh and party general secretary Sanjay Joshi. At a meeting of the party's parliamentary board here attended among others by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Naidu, HRD Minister Murali Manohar Joshi, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and party general secretaries Pramod Mahajan and Mukhtar Abbasa Naqvi, it was decided that Naidu would preside over the deliberations in Raipur.

Chattisgarh state unit president Raman Singh is the front runner for the chief ministerial post with former Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo opting out since the cash on tape scam. Finance Minister Jaswant Singh would be the party's observer in Rajasthan where the formal election of Vasundhare Raje as legislative party leader is slated for December 06 and she will be sworn-in on December 08, party sources said.


Union Minister Ram Naik and party vice president Pyarelal Khandelwal have been deputed as central observers for Madhya Pradesh with the date for the election of legislature party leader to be decided in consultation with party's chief ministerial candidate Uma Bharati.

According to indications the meeting of the legislature party is likely to be held on December 06. Bureau Report