New Delhi, Julu 03: BJP President Nitin Gadkari will be contesting the 2014 Lok Sabha polls with an eye on the Prime Minister’s post, party sources said.
He will be joining the few other contesters for the top post, which include Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.
With BJP veteran L K Advani likely to be out of the race, Gadkari sees himself as the dark horse who might get a chance to run the country, if he successfully leads the party for three years.
Gadkari, the blue-eyed boy of the RSS, was picked by the Sangh for the much- coveted post of BJP President, when anybody and everybody were struggling to succeed Rajnath Singh. An unknown face at the Centre, he was chosen by the RSS to run the party and he managed to reign in all the dissidents.
Gadkari is likely to contest from Nagpur or Wardha and is nursing the constituency to ensure his seat in the Lok Sabha in 2014, sources said. However, only the future will tell whether be would satisfied to be a back-bencher or whether he would want to be a front-bencher.
Much depends on how he builds up the party before the elections and whether he can carry his seat in Maharashtra. So far, Gadkari has not contested an Assembly seat though he has been an MLC in Maharasthra for four consecutive terms, from 1990 to 2008.
Prior to the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, former BJP President Rajnath Singh had also utilised his stature to contest Lok Sabha elections from Ghaziabad and managed to secure the seat for himself in the Lower House. Similarly, Jaswant Singh and Sushma Swaraj, who were often criticised for not contesting for the Lok Sabha, decided to take the plunge for the sake of their futures.
While Sushma was lucky to replace Advani as Leader of Opposition after winning the seat from Vidisha, Jaswant Singh lost the race, despite winning from Darjeeling.
Arun Jaitley also managed to become Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
However, it is only if the party wins at the hustings, that the BJP president can think of becoming the Prime Minister. But with the RSS on his side, he certainly can dream big!
–Agencies