Some sitting MPs and ministers are not still sure of getting tickets to contest in the upcoming general elections.
Top BJP leaders, including sitting Union ministers, are not still sure of getting a renomination in the upcoming general elections, the first phase of which is likely to be less than 50 days away.
Speaking to the Daily Guardian, a sitting Union minister, known for his out-spokenness, said that he was yet to receive any formal or informal message from the party whether to start preparation for the election or not.
The MP said that every day his supporters are coming to him with the same query on whether they should start preparing for the campaign. With no clear answer from the leadership, he has asked them to wait for the election dates to be announced.
Similarly, a MP from one of the state capitals said that he too was not sure about the ticket despite his claims of doing a lot of work for the electorates in his state.
According to a party insider, this was a general topic of concern for almost all sitting BJP MPs as none of them have yet been asked to start preparing for the polls.
Barring a few seats, where the candidates have been personally assured by the top leadership and a few more seats where a few of the influential Rajya Sabha MPs have their eyes on, most of the seats are ‘open’. As a result, contenders for these seats, including sitting bureaucrats, are leaving no stone unturned in an effort to get a ticket for themselves, given the perception that like 2014 and 2019, the BJP will be sweeping this election too in what is being attributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity.
A serving Indian Police Service (IPS) officer is trying to get the BJP ticket for a seat that is presently represented by a two-time Union minister. However, his renomination too is yet to be confirmed, as a result of which the IPS officer has been meeting BJP leaders and explaining to them why he was better than the other contenders, including the sitting minister.
According to some BJP leaders, who are not in the race in the hustings, said that while the worry among the sitting MPs was understandable, it was not a matter of concern as far as the party’s objective was concerned because the BJP keeps campaigning and telling the voters, all throughout the five years about the work that it does and hence its ‘campaign’ does not depend too much on who the candidate is.
“There are several examples in the past two elections where we have given the ticket to a relatively unknown individual, just a few weeks before the elections and still we have won by a huge margin.
That shows that the face value of the candidate is not a huge factor, but what makes a difference is the work that our government has done in the past five years.
Apart from our development work, the popularity of Narendra Modi among the electorates is the other main election plank for the BJP. Rest all factors are distant secondary. We are not in a rush.
You speak to people, they are going to vote for the Lotus symbol, as it represents Modi. Even the PM, during the national executive, told the party cadre to focus on the symbol rather than the individual,” a party insider told the Daily Guardian.
According to him, no MP, barring very few, who should consider themselves assured of renomination.