Union Home Minister Amit Shah
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: BJP may drop more than a dozen MLAs in poll-bound Bihar. A key meeting held by Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week had led to feedback that new faces might bring better results for the party. In some cases, the party might field sitting and former MPs of the state as well.
Sources in the party said that discussions on ticket distribution took place on over 150 seats with Shah, and names will be announced once the poll schedule is published by the Election Commission. BJP leaders said that seats in Seemanchal, Bettiah, Samastipur, and Araria are almost finalised. The party is likely to field new faces to combat strong anti-incumbency in some of these seats.
In earlier meetings, BJP leaders had deliberated on 39 seats where the win or loss margin was less than 10,000 votes in the last assembly polls. For instance, in seats like Arrah, Barhara, Munger, Begusarai, Badhwar, Hajipur, Amnour, Pranpur and Parihar, BJP’s win margin was below 5000 votes.
Additionally, in over 18 seats, the BJP lost by 10,000 votes, among which, in over 9 seats, the win margin was less than 5000. This includes seats like Kalyanpur, Kishanganj, Siwan and Bhagalpur where the difference was around 1000 votes, and seats like Kurhani, Bakhri and Dehri, where it lost by 712, 777 and 454 votes respectively.
The party is also toying with the idea of fielding some of its former as well as sitting MPs. One of the names doing the rounds is that of Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who had recently been in the news for winning the post of president in the elections at Delhi’s Constitution Club with the help of Opposition MPs.