A list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections was released by the BJP first, demonstrating once more that it is a tireless electoral machine that works around the clock. There are still days till the general election declaration.
The list is an experiment in winnability that has been carefully tuned. At a meeting of his Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also unveiled a 100-day action plan for his third term in a gesture that verged on arrogance. Expected names are on the BJP list, but there are also some unexpected omissions. Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Amit Shah, and Modi all return to their former seats as expected. However, a few more have been removed. With the exception of one seat, Delhi, which had total trust in the BJP to win all seven seats in 2019, would have new faces in every seat. Meenakshi Lekhi, who will be replaced for the New Delhi ticket by Bansuri Swaraj, the late Sushma Swaraj’s daughter, and veteran fighter Harsh Vardhan, who has been removed from Chandni Chowk, are two of the unexpected omissions. Both Gautam Gambhir, who had a lacklustre tenure as the East Delhi MP, and Jayant Sinha, who seemed like a dubious choice for the Hazaribagh seat in Jharkhand, decided to withdraw from the contest. The removal of Pragya Singh Thakur, Parvesh Verma, and Ramesh Bidhuri—all of whom have stirred up controversy in the past with their hateful remarks—indicates that there is uneasiness inside the saffron party over the party members’ escalation of intercommunal hostilities.
Caste and regional factors are still significant factors in the BJP’s selection of candidates, despite assertions to the contrary. What other reason there for keeping Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son Ashish was charged with killing farmers who were protesting, as the candidate from Lakhimpur Kheri. One further thing to note about the BJP list is that a number of members of the Upper House are being dispatched to ask for public approval. Among them are prominent individuals such as Jyoriraditya Scindia from Guna in Madhya Pradesh and Rajeev Chandrashekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, where Congressman Shashi Tharoor is the current MP. It is believed that Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s nomination for the Vidisha seat is a ploy to keep him out of state politics, where he still has significant influence. In an effort to make room for party defectors, the BJP has eliminated a number of sitting Members. The opposition parties, most notably the Congress, are nowhere near the starting block, while the saffron party is nearly halfway around the track. In light of the relentless BJP machine, there is now more of a need than ever to expedite the procedure.
Abhishek Verma
Author: This news is edited by: Abhishek Verma, (Editor, CANON TIMES)
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