Beating anti-incumbency intent behind BJP's move to field 82 new faces

With a plan to beat the anti-incumbency against its government in the state, the BJP is fielding more than 80 fresh faces, including replacements for about 20 legislators.

By changing nearly a third of its candidates for the 224 seats, the BJP leaders strongly feel that they can beat the anti-incumbency factor the way their party had done in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and other states in the past.

Apart from this, the leaders feel that the BJP’s plan to launch its final phase of campaign blitzkrieg led by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is likely to give the party the required push to increase the vote share by up to 3 per cent, to beat anti-incumbency.

Also Read | Karnataka polls: 2018's biggest winner now fights for political survival

A senior leader from Kittur Karnataka told DH that with PM Modi and Shah at the helm, party workers hold a very important position in the scheme of things in the party and nobody should underestimate this.

“If party receives any complaints from its workers, it will be considered seriously. It should be ensured that workers’ demands are fulfilled and proposals are looked into. That is how we were able to replace four of five candidates in Udupi district alone. Similarly, we have replaced around 20 sitting legislators including former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, based on the feedback from workers and it’s not a whimsical decision by any single leader in the state or at the Centre,” the source said.

The source said that the decision on replacing candidates taken by the high command might be attributed to the government’s poor handling of the 40 per cent commission charges levelled by the Karnataka Contractors’ Association, failing to tackle internal squabbles of party leaders in districts as well as the strong outreach of both JD(S) and Congress, much before BJP’s campaign began in the state.

“The party high command had even ordered three rounds of surveys in the state and four rounds of surveys in a couple of key constituencies, before deciding to change 82 candidates,” the source said.

The source said the party high command has taken into account a combination of factors: loyalty to the party, caste identity and the candidates’ position in the power structure of the constituency. It has also picked a few persons with dubious backgrounds, which reflects the party’s desperation to retain power.

BJP spokesperson and senior leader Capt Ganesh Karnik concluded that changing 82 candidates indicates only one thing: winnability is the criteria.

“With PM Modi leading our campaign, we are sure of enhancing our vote share by at least 3 per cent, which will offset the anti-incumbency factor to a large extent and ensure we cross the majority mark on our own,” he said.