In first Raj list, BJP banks on experience

JAIPUR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to go largely with established leaders in its first list of 131 candidates for the Rajasthan polls. The party has nominated 85 sitting MLAS and dropped 25. The 21 other tickets have gone to leaders who have contested elections before.

The BJP held 120 of the 131 seats for which it declared candidates in the first list.

A senior state BJP leader said tickets were given on the basis of winnability and the party decided to go with known candidates in some tight contests where it had few options.

“On several seats especially in the Bikaner and Shekhawati belts there were no strong options and so the party went with current candidates,” said a BJP leader from Hanumangarh.

A second party leader said on condition of anonymity that during a meeting in Delhi to decide candidates, chief minister Vasundhara Raje told the central leadership that a large-scale change of candidates would give the message that the government had failed to perform at a time when the BJP is fighting the election on a development plank.

It was also felt that on many high-risk seats there were no strong alternative candidates and changing a candidate might not ensure a win, so the party decided to go ahead with incumbents, said a third BJP leader familiar with the developments.

“The high command seems to have played safe and gone with Raje. They didn’t want any trouble ahead of the elections. Their focus is on the 2019 general elections,” said the leader.

Rajasthan has 200 assembly seats and goes to polls on November 7. The BJP has suffered losses in a string of bypolls in the state and is fighting to retain power. The first list saw the axe fall on six cabinet and three ministers of state, including PWD minister Yunus Khan and health minister Kalicharan Saraf .

Political analyst Narayan Bareth said it seemed Raje prevailed over the central leadership. “There was a perception that she would be sidelined. But the list has bust that view,” he said.

State BJP in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna refuted speculation that the list had Raje’s stamp on it, saying it was the party’s list. “The tickets have been given keeping in mind the winnability of the candidate,” he said.

Congress spokesperson Archana Sharma said the BJP list showed that the party has once again given a chance to those candidates who have insulted people’s mandate. “BJP will definitely lose the polls,” she said.