Who will be BJP's choice for CM?

Holi has come two days early for the BJP after its landslide win in Uttar Pradesh and wresting back Uttarakhand. As voting trends started pouring from Saturday morning, BJP workers gathered at the party headquarters in Ashoka Road with dhols, colours, rose petals, and sweets.

The big question, however, is who will be the party's chief minister in India's most politically significant state.

Like in previous state elections campaigns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the face of the party in the run-up to the polls. He was also its most tireless campaigner.

Speaking to media after the historic mandate the BJP national president Amit Shah side-stepped the question on the party's CM choice, asserting: "The party will go for a credible and capable face." Political observers feel that both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah might prefer an unusual face like Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Five names are doing the rounds as a possible CM choice.

Keshav Prasad Maurya, the BJP's state unit chief, is one of the top contenders for the post of CM.

Maurya is a first time Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Phulpur, Allahabad. He was handpicked for the job of BJP state president by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah to mobilise OBCs and most backward classes (MBCs).

Home Minister Rajnath Singh is another contender for the job. Singh had been Chief Minister of the state and also shares a close proximity with BJP's parent organisation RSS.

But there are others in the fray too. One such is union minister Manoj Sinha.

Sinha, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, is minister of state (independent charge) in the ministry of communications, and also minister of state of railways. He represents Ghazipur in the Lok Sabha.

Yogi Adityanath, five-time BJP MP from Gorakhpur and party vice-president Dinesh Sharma are also in the reckoning.