NEW DELHI: While the suspense over the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is all set to get over on Saturday, Union Minister Manoj Sinha apparently stole the show during the brief time he spent in Parliament on Friday. Hogging the limelight, Sinha briefly came to the Parliament to meet Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh, but ministers and MPs reached out to him in the corridors to shake hands and wish him “all the best”. Despite the limelight, Sinha made it evident that he was avoiding the media glare ahead of the D-Day on Saturday.
With the Uttarakhand legislature party of the BJP in its meeting on Friday elected Trivendra Singh Rawat, the BJP leaders claimed that another Thakur could not wear the crown in Lucknow, while hinting that Rajnath Singh is not in the contention.
While senior BJP leaders continued to maintain that “only the super Boss (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) knows the name of the next chief minister of UP”, the toss seems to be between Sinha and the state unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya. “The next chief minister is the one you were just speaking to,” said a newly elected BJP MLA from UP, while pointing to Sinha.
In the corridors of the Parliament, Union Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu, with broad smiles writ large on his face, patted the shoulder of Sinha, who is his junior in the ministry. Incidentally, Sinha scores over Maurya in terms of experience in handling Central ministries for close to three years, as he is also a Minister of state with Independent charge of telecommunication. Prabhu after taking over the mettle of the Railways had delegated all administrative issues in the ministry to Sinha and involved him in all the decisions and meetings.
Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Vijay Goel enthusiastically reached out to Sinha to shake hands with him in the corridors of the Parliament. A few other ministers also warmly shared “all the best” to Sinha.
Apparently sensing that he was attracting attention, Sinha hurriedly made a dash for his waiting car, while telling that he is leaving for his Parliamentary constituency Ghazipur. But before he settled in his card, a few party workers touched the feet of Sinha, which also included an UP MLA, who is hopeful of a ministerial berth in the state.
Incidentally, Sinha is known to be among a few ministers at the Centre who enjoys direct access to the Prime Minister. “He looks after the Parliamentary constituency of the Prime Minister. He is a regular to the PMO. People from Varanasi keen to meet the Prime Minister first come to Sinha,” said a close aide of the MP from Ghazipur.