BJP may field Mahesh Jethmalani against Priya Dutt

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is finding it difficult to field a suitable candidate against sitting Congress MP Priya Dutt in the Mumbai North Central constituency, is likely to field eminent lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, the son of former Union minister and high-profile lawyer, Ram Jethmalani for the seat.

The official announcement is likely to take place on Friday. In an interview to a news channel, Mahesh confirmed the BJP had approached him for contesting from the constituency. The 52-year-old lawyer, however, said he was yet to make up his mind.

After it became clear that slain BJP leader Pramod Mahajan’s daughter, Poonam, was not going to get the party’s ticket from the Mumbai North East, a section of party tried to push her name for Mumbai North Central.

However, Poonam and her uncle, Gopinath Munde, the BJP’s national general secretary, politely declined the offer, as Mumbai North Central is considered to be a very safe constituency for the Congress due to a large presence of Muslims and north Indians.

Although Ram Jethmalani had a love-hate relationship with the BJP leadership and the Sangh Parivar, his son always enjoyed a good relationship with the party’s top brass and hopes to represent the constituency which his father had once represented. Jethmalani Sr. had won the Lok Sabha elections from the then Mumbai North-West in 1977 and 1980 and lost to Sunil Dutt in 1984.