In a development that may have great bearing on Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministerial choice in Uttar Pradesh, the Intelligence Bureau has sent to the Prime Minister’s Office a detailed report on Lucknow mayor Dinesh Sharma, who is also party’s national vice president in-charge of Gujarat.

According to official sources, the PMO sought the report from the IB soon after various exit polls started showing the BJP as the front-runner in the crucial state.

Sharma, who comes from a Brahmin family affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is known for his close proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

It was on his invitation that Modi had attended the Lucknow Ramlila in October last year while chanting “Jai Shri Ram”. The Prime Minister quietly laid down an electoral plank that veered around hard core Hindutva and sought to throw the state back to the 1990s when Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi debate dominated the political firmament of the state.

Though a final decision on BJP’s chief ministerial choice would be taken by the party’s Parliamentary Board, the very fact that the PMO sought a report on Sharma clearly puts him in the race for the crucial post in UP.

Many in the BJP feel that a Brahmin face as the chief minister would be beneficial for the party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 especially as Keshav Prasad Maurya, who belongs to Other Backward Classes, is party’s state president.

Besides Sharma, the party insiders also mention the names of Keshav Prasad Maurya, Union minister Manoj Sinha and party spokesperson Shrikant Sharma as probable chief ministerial choices in UP.

Maurya, a member of Kushwaha caste, the largest demographic segment among the non-Yadav OBCs, is also close to both Modi and Shah as well as the RSS. A sitting MP from Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP’s UP unit president, like Modi, has also claimed to have sold tea in his youth.

Maurya’s OBC background, his humble beginning and his deep association with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement are considered factors working in his favour. He is also credited with conducting most numbers of rallies in UP where he campaigned in more than 200 Assembly constituencies.

Yet, unlike Dinesh Sharma, who is known for his clean image, Maurya faces a number of court cases and some of them are criminal cases.

Manoj Sinha, the other probable as chief minister in UP, is Minister of State for Railways. He is from Ghazipur and belongs to Bhumihar caste. During his election campaign in eastern UP, Modi praised him on several occasions for his role in Railway Ministry.

Shrikant Sharma, the media face of the party and its national secretary, is considered the right-hand man of Amit Shah. His name as probable CM candidate started doing rounds immediately after the party decided to field him from prestigious Mathura Assembly seat.