Lula's party weighs Brazil northeast vote in search for stand-in - sources

FILE PHOTO: Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks at his book launch event in Sao Paulo, Brazil March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Steadfast support for jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil's poor northeast may give a former governor from the region an edge in the search for the leftist icon's substitute, three Workers Party officials told Reuters this week.

Jaques Wagner, a former governor of Bahia state and a minister under Lula and his successor Dilma Rousseff, is gaining ground and could displace former Sمo Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad as the party's likely presidential candidate in the October election, the sources said. They requested anonymity to speak freely about internal deliberations.