Lok Sabha Election: There is an atmosphere of Lok Sabha elections in the country and the number of people changing parties has suddenly increased significantly. Besides, many former bureaucrats, ambassadors and veterans who have held government posts are also coming or have joined politics. BJP, Congress and other political parties have also placed their bets by giving them tickets or big posts in the party. Statistics show that in 2019, various parties had fielded 75 candidates who were from other parties or former bureaucrats. According to the ADR report, 47 of these people had lost the election. Now it remains to be seen how effective this strategy will be in 2024?
dream of touching 400 seats
This time BJP is talking about touching the figure of 400 seats out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. It has also given tickets to turncoat leaders and former bureaucrats from various Lok Sabha seats. Apart from this, the party has been adopting a method earlier also to avoid the anti-incumbency wave. It does not give tickets again to 20 to 30 percent of the sitting MPs and MLAs in every election. Among those who did not get tickets, the majority were those who were ministers in the government.
Giving ticket to a turncoat is like a gamble
Political experts say that giving ticket to a turncoat or a former bureaucrat is like a gamble. Sometimes the parties have been successful in this experiment and sometimes they have also missed by huge margins. Parties give tickets or posts in the party to leaders who change parties because they feel that this will benefit their support base. If he is not given recognition, his supporters will be isolated.
These veterans lost the elections in 2019
The veterans who could not succeed in 2019 include names like Shatrughan Sinha, Baijayant Jai Panda and Manvendra Singh. Sinha had joined Congress from BJP, but lost the election from Patna Sahib seat. Similarly, Baijayant Jai Panda joined BJP from BJD and contested from Kendrapara while Manvendra Singh contested from Barmer on Congress ticket and could not win. According to a BJP official, the priority of the party is to give tickets to its loyalists first but later it starts to depend on victory.
BJP’s formula in 4 states
BJP has announced the names of 417 candidates for the elections to be held from April 19. Among these, there are some veteran leaders who have changed parties. He has also been given a ticket. These are those states where BJP wants to increase its vote share. These include Telangana, Odisha, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.
4 out of 11 candidates joined recently
In the latest list of 11 names, there are 4 people who have recently become part of BJP. Six-time MP Bhartuhari Mahtab has left BJD and joined BJP. He is contesting elections from Cuttack. In Punjab, former Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu has been given ticket from Ludhiana, AAP’s lone MP Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar and former Congress MP Praneet Kaur from Patiala. All three have recently joined BJP.
New leaders tested on the test
According to a BJP official, the party considers the political influence of outside leaders on the basis of their dominance and popularity over their caste or community. Recently inducted leaders have also been tested on this criterion. The party hopes that they will win the elections. The party has given tickets to most of such leaders in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In Gujarat, tickets have been given to Shebhana Baria, wife of former Congress MLA Mahendra Baria from Sabarkanth and Chandu Sihora from Surendranagar. Last week, supporters of Bhikhaji Thakor had also registered their protest against making another leader the candidate from Sabarkanth.
80 Lok Sabha seats in UP
There are 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. BJP is making alliance there and adding leaders to its party. The party has given tickets to former veteran Congress leaders Jitin Prasad and Kripashankar Singh, who joined BJP in 2021.
Many new names in Haryana
BJP-Jannayak Janata Party alliance broke in Haryana, after which many new faces emerged. Among these, tickets have been given to Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa and Ranjit Singh from Hisar.
BJP in Telangana-Andhra Pradesh
BJP has not been able to establish its dominance in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The party is dependent here on those people who are coming from other parties. These include leaders of Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana and TDP, Congress and YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh.
This arrangement since the time of Atal ji
Another official said that the party is contesting the elections from some places by giving tickets to ambassadors and bureaucrats. Former government officers do not have a special support base nor are they associated with any caste or linguistic equation, yet their chances of winning the elections are high. Since the time of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the party has been including ambassadors and bureaucrats in the government and they have strengthened the party.
Were successful in 2019
In 2019, the party gave opportunity to former bureaucrats like Hardeep Puri, RK Singh, Satpal Singh. This time, former Indian Ambassador to America, Taranjit Singh Sandhu is being given a chance from Amritsar. Apart from this, tickets have been given to former IPS Debashish Dhar from Birbhum, government doctor Pranthu Tudu from Jhargram and former High Court judge Abhijeet Gangopadhyay from Tamluk.