Venkaiah Naidu dismisses speculation on UP CM’s name

TIL Desk/National/Lucknow/ Union Minister and senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said that the party’s Chief Minister choice for Uttar Pradesh will be decided after a meeting of party MLAs in the evening. Naidu also said that the names currently circulating in the media were only speculation.

Earlier, the name of union minister Manoj Sinha had surfaced with sources suggesting that he could be the next chief minister of the state. However, Sinha, the MP from Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, told reporters outside Parliament that he was not in the race. Name of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who served as the last BJP chief minister in the state in 2002, is also doing rounds in the media along with that of state president Keshav Prasad Maurya. While Maurya is an OBC face, Singh belongs to the Thakur community. Maurya also reached party president Amit Shah’s residence in Delhi to meet him.

However, Sinha was seen offering prayers at Kashi Vishwanath, Kal Bhairav and Sankat Mochan temples in Varanasi on Saturday morning. The BJP MLAs will be meeting today after which final announcement on CM name is expected at 4 pm.