Eminent lawyer and former Parliamentarian Ram Jethmalani has written a letter to BJP President Nitin Gadkari expressing his desire to join the party and represent it in Rajya Sabha but sources said the main opposition is yet to take a call on the issue.
Jethmalani's letter, copies of which were sent to senior BJP leaders including LK Advani earlier this week, states that he is keen on entering the Upper House of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh, where the party is in power.
If the 87-year-old lawyer's plea is accepted, he will pip actor-turned politician Hema Malini to the post as till now her name has been doing the rounds for the seat.
BJP MP unit has said it will give one of the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state to a candidate chosen by the Central unit.
Senior BJP leaders maintain that the issue has not yet been discussed in the party.
Interestingly, Jethmalani had unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow against senior BJP leader and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Though he stood as an independent candidate, Jethmalani was supported by the Congress.
The lawyer has good relations with several BJP leaders, including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.
But the criminal lawyer's entry into BJP may cause the right-wing party some embarassment as he has earlier argued in Rajya Sabha that Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment.
BJP has been accusing the UPA government of not carrying out the death sentence against Afzal for votebank politics and appeasement of minorities.
He has served as a union minister in the United Front and NDA governments. Jethmalani, an independent MP, joined the BJP-led NDA ministry in 1998 and then again in October 1999.
However, he quit the Vajpayee government in July 2000.
Jethmalani's son Mahesh, also an advocate, contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket from North-Central Mumbai but lost to Priya Dutt of Congress. He continues to be an active member of BJP.
