Among the front-runners is R P Singh. Singh is a member of the national executive committee of the BJP and is assisting BJP leader Arun Jaitley in the Jammu and Kashmir elections.

Singh has earlier assisted in the Punjab Assembly elections in 2006 in which BJP won 19 seats - the highest it has ever won in Punjab.

Singh’s name had done the rounds earlier too, although Yogi managed to get the ticket as the party took a unanimous decision to give tickets to all previous candidates. “I cannot comment on ticket selection,” Singh told Newsline speaking from Jammu.

Workers in the Rajinder Nagar constituency are rallying behind the family.

“If the party wants to win the elections, a member of Yogi’s family should contest,” said Malti Verma, BJP councillor from Naraina. Party workers had accompanied Yogi’s son and wife to visited Arun Jaitley’s house on Thursday.

Party sources, however, indicate that senior leaders have shot down the idea of giving tickets to Yogi’s son Rajiv Yogi or his wife. Rajiv Yogi refused to comment on the issue. “I’m not in a state to talk,” he said.

Other names doing round are the Karol Bagh district president, Ravinder Gupta. Gupta, who is been working for party for several years, had lobbied hard for the ticket when Yogi was alive.

Gupta lives in Karol Gupta Hathiwala chowk which is away from the constituency. Yogi had complained against Gupta for being non-cooperative, which would go against him.

“I have met the leaders and once again put forward my name. But I will accept whatever they say,” said Ravinder Gupta.

Hindu College passout Rajan Tiwari, also a worker from the area, is also in the race. “I was and bought up in Rajinder Nagar so I know the area very well and have worked at various levels in the party,” Tiwari said, an alumnus of Salwan Public School in Rajinder Nagar.