BJP announces first list of 177 candidates for Madhya Pradesh, names 70 fresh candidates, yet to hand out tickets in 53 seats.

New Delhi: After a day-long deliberation, the BJP’s central election committee, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, Friday announced the party’s first list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh, naming nominees for 177 of the 230 seats in the poll-bound state.

The party has dropped 37 sitting MLAs, including two ministers, and has changed candidates from the 2013 elections in 33 other seats. In all, there are new candidates in 70 of the seats.

As such, the BJP has continued to replicate its strategy of replacing candidates, including sitting MLAs, in constituencies it feels are the worst hit by anti-incumbency.

In the previous elections, the BJP had contested in all 230 seats and had won in 165 of them. That year, the party had changed 100 candidates and had repeated 130 candidates.

The BJP is yet to name candidates in 53 seats, which includes constituencies of 38 sitting MLAs.

Ministers axed

The party has axed two ministers — Maya Singh and Harsh Singh — and it has shifted the constituency of Woman And Child Development Lalita Yadav from Chhatarpur, where she contested in 2013, to Malhara.

Tickets have not yet been announced for three seats represented by ministers Kusum Singh Mahdele, Sharad Jain and Surya Prakash Meena.

While the other ministers have retained their tickets, Forest Minister Gauri Shankar Shejwar has been replaced by his son Mudit Sejwar at Sanchi constituency. The junior Sejwar, news report said, had posted a critical comment on demonetisation on his Facebook account in 2016.

Internal struggle delays ticket distribution

In the remaining 53 seats, the party is yet to announce candidates in a majority of them due to a lack of consensus.

This is particularly true of Indore Parliamentary Constituency, where, sources said, there is a tug of war between candidates owing allegiance to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.

The ticket distribution for these seats has been put on hold.

“Both want tickets for their own candidates. The party is yet to decide,” said a senior party leader.

The fresh face strategy

With Friday’s announcement, the BJP continues to follow its fresh face strategy.

Senior BJP leaders claim that it was in the 2002 Gujarat elections that it first experimented with the idea of changing candidates on seats which the party assumes are the worst hit by anti-incumbency.

“There are seats where people do not have angst against the CM and the government but voters are dissatisfied with the sitting MLA. These seats get new candidates,” said a senior BJP leader. “This way, the party stands a chance of winning. This formula has worked for several years now.”