On UP And Other Chief Ministers, BJP Leaves Final Call To Amit Shah

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah will take a final call on who would be the Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand - the two states the party won - and Manipur and Goa, where it is trying to stitch together a majority. The decision came after a two-hour meeting of the party's parliamentary board, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called specially to discuss the way forward after election results of the five states that were announced yesterday.

The party has named a group of observers who would visit the four states and report back to Mr Shah, said Union Minister JP Nadda.

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav will be observers for Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and general secretary Saroj Pandey will head for Uttarakhand. Union Minister Piyush Goyal and party vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe will go to Manipur, Mr Nadda said.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari is already in Goa as an observer, where Union Minister Manohar Parrikar is expected to be sworn in as the Chief Minister. Not only the local BJP unit has demanded that the defence minister come back to lead them, two smaller parties have said they would support the BJP if Mr Parrikar was at the helm of the government. The BJP, which won 13 seats in the 40-member assembly, says it has secured the support of eight legislators to stake claim to form government.

In Uttar Pradesh, which has given a thumping mandate to the BJP, the contenders for the top post include state party chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, Lucknow Mayor Dinesh Sharma, Union Minister Manoj Sinha and BJP national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh.

The meeting was held after a victory celebration by the BJP, with PM Modi getting off his car and walking the last stretch to the BJP office amid a shower of flower petals and slogan-shouting by ecstatic supporters. He also addressed the people after reaching the party headquarters. 

(With inputs from PTI)