After the BJP’s choice to drop half a dozen sitting MPs in Maharashtra backfired within the Lok Sabha elections — it received 9 of the 28 seats it contested — the social gathering has adopted a extra cautious method within the Meeting elections and fielded its tried-and-tested leaders. Within the first listing of 99 introduced on Sunday, the social gathering retained 80 of its MLAs.
“The social gathering determined in opposition to making any drastic adjustments as seen in Gujarat and Haryana, the place virtually half the MLAs had been dropped. Solely in sure constituencies the place the winnability issue of sitting MLAs is totally dominated out, will it go for recent faces,” mentioned a senior state BJP chief. Within the latest Haryana polls, the BJP retained solely 23 of its 40 MLAs.
A BJP insider mentioned the social gathering didn’t need to rock its personal boat and get slowed down with fire-fighting, on condition that the Opposition is stronger in Maharashtra in comparison with a state akin to Gujarat. “We don’t need to promote rebels, Independents,” mentioned a state Cupboard minister from the BJP.
“The only standards for giving ticket is winnability,” state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule mentioned after the listing was launched. “The social gathering takes the choice collectively. There’s a mechanism which is strictly applied.”
Within the 2019 Meeting elections, the BJP contested 164 seats and received 105 seats whereas the undivided Sena contested 128 seats and bagged 56. This time, the social gathering is aiming to contest 150-155 seats, the Shiv Sena 80-85 constituencies, and the NCP 50-55 seats.
Among the 25 BJP MLAs who didn’t function within the first listing have made a beeline on the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis prior to now two days to push their candidature. Some ticket aspirants who should not prone to get a ticket have both joined one other social gathering or threatened to modify sides. A number of such ticket aspirants are these whose kin already have tickets from the BJP.
Whereas the senior BJP MP and former Union Minister Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh is once more contesting from Kankavli Meeting constituency in Sindhudurg district, the social gathering didn’t give a ticket to his brother Nilesh, who unsuccessfully fought the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, is ready to affix the Sena and contest from the close by Kudal constituency. Equally, senior MLA Ganesh Naik bought the ticket from Airoli in Thane district however his son Sandeep who was denied a ticket from Belapur in the identical district has joined the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and is prone to get the Opposition social gathering’s ticket from the seat. The BJP has fielded sitting MLA Manda Mhatre from Belapur.
Whereas some BJP leaders pointed to a “one household, one ticket” norm, others within the social gathering identified that the social gathering had already fielded brothers from the identical household: Ashish Shelar (Bandra West) and Vinod Shelar (Malad West). “In any election, there are at all times three to 4 promising aspirants for each constituency. In the end, we have now to pick out only one candidate per constituency. These overlooked are certain to get upset,” mentioned a BJP chief, including that the social gathering would attempt to get the rebels to withdraw earlier than October 31, the final day for withdrawing nominations.
Even in seats akin to Shrigonda, Phulambri, and Chinchwad, the place the social gathering modified candidates, it did so with the consensus of the outgoing MLA. In Shrigonda in Ahmednagar district, the social gathering changed sitting MLA Babanrao Panchpute together with his spouse Pratibha whereas in Phulambri, the social gathering has fielded Arundhatitai Chavan after Haribhau Bagade was moved to Rajasthan as Governor. In Chinchwad in Pune district, the social gathering changed sitting MLA Ashwini Laxman Jagtap together with her brother-in-law Shankar Jagtap, whereas in Kalyan East, Ganpat Gaikwad who’s in jail for opening fireplace at a Sena chief in a police station earlier this 12 months has been changed by his spouse Sulabha.
Among the many MLAs retained are 10 heavyweight ministers, together with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, and Magal Prabhat Lodha. Mungantiwar has been from Ballarpur in Chandrapur district, months after shedding the Lok Sabha elections from the parliamentary constituency. “Had we dropped him, it will have conveyed a incorrect message in Vidarbha.”
One of many large adjustments within the area was in Kamthi, the place sitting MLA Teckchand Sawarkar was changed by Bawankule because the social gathering wished to appease the latter’s Teli OBC neighborhood. Vidarbha has 62 Meeting seats and might be essential to how the BJP fares within the polls. In 2014, when it got here to energy with 122 seats, the BJP swept Vidarbha by successful 44 seats in Vidarbha. In 2019, when the social gathering’s tally dropped to 105, a significant chunk of the losses got here in Vidarbha the place the social gathering misplaced 15 seats. An evaluation of the latest Lok Sabha polls exhibits that the Mahayuti alliance, of which the BJP is part, led 22 Meeting segments whereas the Maha Vikas Aghadi was forward in 35 segments, with the remainder going to smaller events and Independents.
