Several record-holding MPS set to be out of race
NEW DELHI: With Lal Krishna Advani, 91, not figuring in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s list as its candidate from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, the contours of an exclusive club of record-holding lawmakers is set to change.
A mere 13 of the thousands of Parliamentarians who have represented any of India’s 543 parliamentary constituencies in the Lok Sabha have won at least five consecutive terms, according to Lok Sabha data. And in 2019, four of the 13 will not be there to extend their records further.
Apart from Advani, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, and his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath are also not expected to fight the elections. Another member of this elite club, former parliamentary affairs minister Anath Kumar died last year.
Kumar won six consecutive elections since 1996 from Bangalore South.many of the members of this elite grouping have retained their own seats even as governments have ebbed and flowed. The other members of this exclusive club (at least five successive wins) are: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan,
formerprimeminister Hddevegowda, BJP’S Chhattisgarh MP Ramesh Bais, Biju Janata Dal’s Bhartruhari Mahtab, Arjun Charan Sethi and Prasanna Patasani, Congress MP KH Muniyappa, Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav and Shiv Sena leader and union minister Ananth Geete.
Kamal Nath tops the list, with a staggering nine consecutive terms as MP, followed by Mahajan and Sethi (both eight terms), Advani, Muniyappa and Bais (seven) and Geete, Ananth Kumar and Yadav (six). The others have been in the Lower House for five terms. On Thursday, the
Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) announced its first list of candidates and allotted the Gandhinagar seat to party chief Amit Shah.
The nine other members of the (at least) five-term club are set to get tickets, unless there is a rethink at the last moment. The candidature of the three members of the BJD is expected to be announced shortly.
Talking about this unique record, BJD’S Lok Sabha floor leader Bhartruhari Mahtab said: “I am grateful to BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and the people of my constituency Cuttack for reposing their faith on me for such a long period.