BJP brass now gears up for Lok Sabha bypolls

NEW DELHI: After scraping through Gujarat with a 'less than expected' margin, BJP now prepares for several bypolls, with the immediate challenge being retaining four of the eight vacant Lok Sabha seats which will go to polls in the next couple of months.
Making it tough for the ruling party will be the known faces of Congress, which are likely to be in the fray even as BJP is in the process of identifying winnable candidates.

The bypolls are likely to be linked to the performance of the Modi government, which has been facing opposition onslaught on several issues, including GST implementation, demonetisation and agrarian stress.

The vacant seats in Lok Sabha are: Ajmer and Alwar (Rajasthan); Gorakhpur and Phulpur (Uttar Pradesh); Anantnag (J&K); Araria (Bihar); Uluberia (West Bengal); and Bhandara Gondiya (Maharashtra).

Ajmer and Alwar seats fell vacant after passing away of incumbent BJP MPs — Sawar Lal Jat and Mahant Chand Nath in August and September respectively.

Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituencies are unrepresented after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya resigned in August.

Araria MP, Tasleemuddin (RJD) and Uluberiya MP, Sultan Ahmed (TMC) passed away in September. Bhandara Gondiya fell vacant after BJP MP Nanabhau Patole recently quit the party and resigned from the Lok Sabha even as he had defeated NCP stalwart Praful Patel.

As per constitutional norms, bypoll is mandatory within six months after falling vacant, which means it will be due in six constituencies latest by February next year, barely two months from now. Polling in Anantnag has been delayed as the authorities await for a conducive situation. Polling in Bhandara Gondiya will be held in due course as it fell vacant recently.

Congress sources hinted that Rajasthan state president Sachin Pilot, who had lost in 2014, will be renominated from Ajmer so will be Bhanwar Jitendra Singh from Alwar. Singh had lost to Chand Nath.

BJP sources maintained that Behoror MLA and a cabinet minister in Vasundhara Raje government, Dr Jaswant Yadav, will be the party nominee from Alwar and Sawar Lal Jat's son Ram Swarup Lamba from Ajmer. The saffron party faces more prestigious fight in UP to retain Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats.

As charisma of Yogi Adityanath seems to be intact in his home constituency, the party might be comfortably placed in Gorakhpur but it may not be easy in Phulpur, where it performed miserably in the recent municipal polls. Maurya was the first BJP candidate to win from Phulpur.