New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party's poll panel is meeting for the fourth time today to decide on candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The party has already released a list for 203 seats and is likely to announce 125 more candidates today of which 50 are expected to be from Uttar Pradesh.
But there is still no clear word on whether the BJP will today declare seats for its Big 4 leaders - Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
The party is said to be considering Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh for Mr Modi, and sources said he might also choose to contest from either Ahmedabad East or Vadodara in Gujarat, his home state.
Till now, the BJP has postponed its decision on Mr Modi's candidature from Uttar Pradesh, reportedly due to stiff opposition from Varanasi sitting MP and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi and Lalji Tondon in Lucknow.
Fielding Mr Modi from Varanasi would mean uprooting Mr Joshi, who may then have to shift to Kanpur, where union minister and Congress leader Sriprakash Jaiswal has won the last three elections.
The party is also thinking of fielding its chief Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, but sources say Lalji Tandon, who represents the constituency in the Lok Sabha, has indicated that he may vacate his seat only for Mr Modi, not for Mr Singh.
NDTV has learnt that while one section within the party says they may push for clarity on all seats today, the other section says they would prefer all seats where there is a clear unanimity to be cleared today and decision on seats where there is a contest within the party to be tackled in the next meeting that is scheduled after Holi.
One will have to wait and see if the party displays an appetite for tackling the controversial issue of Mr Modi contesting from Varanasi and Mr Singh from Lucknow today.
Delay in deciding seats for Uttar Pradesh have also led to delay in the announcement of seats for Gujarat because the party reportedly wants to announce both seats for Mr Modi together.