No dearth of capable people in BJP for UP CM's post: Rajnath Singh

LUCKNOW: Amid speculation over BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said there is no dearth of capable people in the party.

"UP mein kabil chehron ke koi kami nahi hai (There is no dearth of capable faces in UP)," he said when asked about BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 Assembly polls.

Speculation is rife ahead of BJP's national executive meeting in Allahabad that Singh could play a "lead role" in the party campaign for the UP polls even if he is not declared the choice for the top political office in the state.

Asked whether he would be made the party's face in UP, Singh, who is Lok Sabha member from Lucknow, said, "Yeh kalpnik prashna hai. Iska koi matlab nahi hai (This is a hypothetical question. It has no meaning)."

The possibility that the party could enter the UP arena with a chief ministerial candidate has gained currency after BJP's victory in Assam where it had declared the name of Sarbananda Sonowal months ahead of the contest.

As against this, the party had not declared a CM candidate in Bihar.

BJP sources said the party was treading cautiously in the state in view of caste politics as projection of Singh, who is a Rajput leader, could upset the Brahmin voters.

The Home Minister, one of the most prominent BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh and former chief minister, asserted that his party would storm to power with a thumping majority in the 2017 election.

Singh was here on a two-day visit to the state.

He has been addressing rallies, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah. He had addressed a public meeting in Mau yesterday.

BJP had won 71 of UP's 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general election.