NEW DELHI: Three ministers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet—Satyanarayan Jatiya, Hukum Dev Narayan Yadav and C P Thakur—appear to have emerged as leading contenders for the post of Vice-President. Besides, Union Minister for Social Justice Thawar Chand Gehlot is also being counted for the coveted post for which election will be held in August.
Party insiders claimed that the BJP top brass is keen on fielding a veteran for the election of Vice-President with the twin objectives of sending a larger political message to a target social constituency and running the Rajya Sabha on the lines of Lok Sabha, which is led by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
“Either of the two top posts of President and Vice-President will go to other backward caste (OBC) or a Dalit candidate. If an OBC or a Dalit candidate gets the nod, then the claimants could be Jatiya or Gehlot (both Dalit), or Yadav (OBC); otherwise Thakur may emerge a strong contender,” said a senior BJP leader.
Yadav was a Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee government and is currently a Lok Sabha MP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly has been very appreciative of him due to his “powerful speeches in the Lok Sabha”, while defending the pro-poor image of the NDA government. With the BJP having tested the success in broadening its electoral basket by making dent in the OBC vote base of rival political parties, the party could send a larger political message to the constituency in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Jatiya was a Minister for Social Justice in the Vajpayee government and represented the Ujjain Lok Sabha constituency. The party leaders hold him in high esteem for his reach in the Dalit community in Madhya Pradesh. Besides, he has a strong RSS bond, said a senior BJP functionary.
Incidentally, Thakur, a Bhumihar, had been one of the senior ministers in the Vajpayee Cabinet, besides being a top leader of the party in Bihar. Thakur enjoys strong bond with the RSS and is seen as a tough task master, which may come in handy for him to run the Rajya Sabha proceedings where the BJP is numerically weaker.