BJP plans to field new faces from most seats

The BJP top brass has cautioned its Karnataka leadership not to assure sitting MLAs of the party and other ticket seekers that they would get the BJP ticket to contest next year’s Assembly polls, as it plans to field new faces from many of the 224 Assembly seats.

The central leadership’s move is also borne out of concern to check factionalism in the state unit of party in the run up to the polls. The BJP decision makers swung into action after receiving complaints that some of their leaders have promised ticket to their followers or aspirants. They have made it clear to Bengaluru that the party nominees will be decided by the central leadership on the basis of winability factor, which would be ascertained through constituency-wise independent surveys.

The party also received a feedback that many aspirants were spreading the word among workers that they have blessings of one of the three strong factions: one led by B S Yeddyurappa, another by K S Eshwarappa and the third by B L Santosh, the RSS leader in the party organisation.

 “To end all these confusion, the party told them not to assure ticket to aspirants. We have told the state leaders no to assure ticket to even those leaders who come from other parties”, a senior BJP functionary told DH.

The decision not to re-nominate many of the sitting MLAs is essentially an idea to beat anti-incumbency against them. In the past, the BJP had successfully done that in Gujarat and during the recent Municipal Council of Delhi (MCD) polls where it had replaced all candidates with new faces. The BJP was able to capture all the three MCDs in the national capital.