BJP top brass meet to talk poll preparedness for states, survey to ascertain candidates soon

The candidates will be selected based on their popularity among people, a lack of controversies attached to their names, and their performance record in implementing scheme of the government, sources said.

A survey to ascertain the winnability of candidates that will be fielded in the five poll-bound states will be carried out by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The decision was taken at a meeting of the party’s highest election authority, the Central Election Committee, which had PM Modi in attendance.

In the meeting, it was decided that the survey will be carried by over 350 legislators of the party, who are not from the five states that head to the polls late this year. “The MLAs who will be tasked with carrying out the survey will be from other BJP ruled states,” said a senior party official, who attended the meeting.

The leader said that 160 of the leaders are likely to be selected from Uttar Pradesh, while 150 could come from Gujarat and Bihar. Over 45 MLAs could be from Maharashtra. The selected lawmakers have to convene in Bhopal by August 18.

Parameters for the selection of these candidates, sources said, are their popularity among people, a lack of controversies attached to their names, and their performance record in implementing scheme of the government. A key suggestion was that those candidates that are to be dropped should be replaced by those who have a good track record in conduction activities of social justice.

This is the first time that the party’s CEC is meeting three months ahead of the polls. Learning a lesson from its poll debacle in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, the CEC has started finalising its candidates in these poll-bound states well in advance so as to give party leadership sufficient time and scope to control dissidence and infighting.

Elections to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will be held later this year.

Apart from Modi, party president JP Nadda, union home minister Amit Shah, union defence minister Rajnath Singh, general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, and former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa were present.

In addition to that, union waterways minister Sarbananda Sonowal, union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP K Laxman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Sudha Yadav, Satyanarayan Jatiya, and Vanathi Srinivasan were present, among others.

The official quoted above said that the feedback from the various units of the party shows that it is not in favourable positions in most of the states that head to the polls.

In Madhya Pradesh, the party is facing anti-incumbency after Chouhan has been at the helm for 18 years. Infighting in Rajasthan could play spoilsport for the party. In Telangana, the entry of former BRS leader Etela Rajender has changed the dynamics within the party’s state units, leading to the displeasure of the supporters of former state president Bandi Sanjay, who was recently appointed as a general secretary in the party. The Manipur strife, where several Kuki-Zo people lost their lives, is likely to upset the BJP’s chances in the Christian-majority state Mizoram.