After Balakot air strikes, BJP bets on sitting MPS
JAIPUR: After the Balakot air strikes, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) strategy in Rajasthan has seen a shift. The party is now confident of winning a majority of the 25 Lok Sabha seats and is likely to repeat most members of parliament (MP), while surprise candidates are also on the cards on weak seats.
Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Rajendra Rathore, Gulab Chand Kataria, Satish Poonia, Arun Chaturvedi and other core committee memb e r s met R a j a s t h a n p o l l incharge Prakash Javadekar with a list of around names of 250 candidates on Sunday, in Delhi.
BJP leaders with knowledge of the matter said that on several seats where the BJP was not confident of a win earlier, it is now planning to going ahead with sitting MPS post the Balakot air strikes that changed the mood in the nation in favour of the BJP.
After the Congress won the assembly elections, the BJP which had won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 was expecting a tough fight to retain its seats. It was also faced with a crisis of candidates. However, with the mood on the ground in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, the party is more confident of its candidates.
BJP leaders said the core committee has a reached consensus on seats where MPS are likely to be repeated. These are Jaipur, Tonk-sawai Madhopur, Nagaur, Pali, Bikaner, Chittorgarh, Kota, Baran-jhalawar, Jalore, Jodhpur, Udaipur and Bhilwara, Ganganagar seats.
However, no decision was taken on candidates for the Ajmer, Barmer, Alwar, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Churu, Dausa, Bharatpur, Karauli-dholpur, Rajsamand and Banswara seats.
These seats are all Jat or scheduled caste dominated and the party will decide on candidates keeping this in mind. Moreover, the regional parties are a factor too in these seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won six seats, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) won three and the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) won two seats in the assembly elections. BSP won in Alwar, Bharatpur, Jhunjhunu and Karauli districts. The RLP won in Jodhpur and Nagaur and the BTP won in Dungarpur and Banswara tribal area.
Tickets of MPS from Barmer, Bharatpur, Karauli-dholpur, Jhunjhunu, Udaipur, Nagaur and Banswara seats could be cut.
Sources said the party is open to experimentation in seats it considers weak, such as those of Jhunjhunu, Sikar and Nagaur. There is a possibility of some celebrities being roped in to win seats.
In another development, Rajsamand MP Hari Om Singh Rathore has announced that he will not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls due to ill health. That leaves open the possibility of the BJP fielding other Rajput leaders on the seat, which is Rajput dominated.
Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat could be fielded from Rajsamand in case chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav contests from Jodhpur. As part of its strategy, BJP could shift Shekhawat to Rajsamand and field Jaswant Vishnoi from Jodhpur. Former MLA Diya Kumari, who was did not contest the assembly polls, has been trying to get a ticket from Jaipur or Tonk-sawai Madhopur seats. However, the party is unlikely to give the Brahmin-dominated Jaipur seat to a Rajput, while sitting MP Sukhbir Jaunapuria is likely to be repeated on the TonkSawai Madhopur seat.