Speculations are rife about BJP's chief ministerial candidate for UP if the party manages to win the election. Apart from Rajnath Singh, Yogi, and Keshav Prasad Maurya, Lucknow Mayor Prof Dinesh Sharma, who is nearing the end of his second term as Mayor, has also emerged as a potential candidate. Sharma, 53, a national vice president of the party, is said to enjoy Prime Minister Narendra Modi's  confidence as well as the backing of the party's ideological mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya often visited Sharma's paternal home on Aishbagh road in Lucknow as he was close to Sharma's father. A conversation with Sharma invariably brings out his close bond with party veteran and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who handpicked him to head the Atal Innovation Mission after he had served twice as the party's youth wing chief. Vajpayee's last public speech was also for Sharma when he contested for Lucknow's mayor a decade ago.