50 BJP MPs may get their tickets denied

With BJP president Amit Shah holding meetings with party workers aiming to fathom ground reality, indications are that around 50 MPs may be denied tickets for the 2019 general elections as their performance was not found to be satisfactory.

A senior BJP party told ‘The Pioneer’ that Shah was on a mission to get feedback from workers about the performance of MPs and MLAs. 

“However, the feedback has not been encouraging. Indications are that the party may not repeat around 50 MPs and try new faces in the next Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

In 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won 71 out of 80 seats and its ally Apna Dal bagged two seats. But in subsequent Lok Sabha bypolls, the party lost all three and its strength came down to 68 in UP.

The first indication of party’s strategy was evident in Mirzapur where MPs and MLAs were made to wait outside the meeting hall as Shah conferred with `vistaraks’ and RSS workers on Wednesday. 

And when he met the MPs from Gorakhpur, Kashi and Awadh regions, the meeting was short and Shah used terse words to make his stand clear that ‘performance of many MPs was poor’. 

The BJP boss followed the same trend when he met MPs of Kanpur-Bundelkhand, Braj and westUP in Agra on Thursday. There too, Shah showed his displeasure over performance of some law makers.

Reports from `Vistaraks’ would form the basis of selection of candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections and reports about some MPs were damaging in nature.  

One of the reports presented in Mirzapur said that MPs were ignorant about policies of the Modi government. It further said that many of them did not participate in `Gram Chaupal’ and some who attended it, did not stay for the night as directed by the party.

Shah was also told that many law makers did not take part in voters’ list verification campaign that the party had taken up last month.  

“The BJP president was visibly angry over the ground report he received from vistaraks. This was the reason that he made MPs to wait outside the meeting hall. Shah even said that these MPs were losing touch with people which was detrimental for the party,” the BJP source told this reporter.

Of late, the BJP has initiated a series of programme where leaders, MPs, and MLAs were asked to visit villages. The Vistaraks were asked to prepare report of leaders attending such meets and where. These reports were regularly evaluated in party meetings.

Vistaraks are unknown faces of the party, who work at ground level along with RSS workers. “These Vistaraks played an instrumental role in the party’s victory in 2017 Assembly elections and their reports would matter for the 2019 polls too,” he said.