BJP to not field any sitting MPs in Uttar Pradesh polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party will not field any sitting member of Parliament in the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, a senior BJP leader said. The saffron party will follow the formulae of ‘one family-one ticket’ when it is distributing tickets, the leader added.

The BJP has till now announced tickets to candidates in 107 seats of the state, that go to polls in the first two phases of the seven-phase elections. In the 2017 assembly elections, the party had won 83 of these seats.

The party will announce candidates for the rest of the seats before the second phase of the elections end, the leader added. While there was a lot of speculation about UP CM Yogi Adityanath fighting the seat from Ayodhya, the senior leader said that the party will soon disclose a candidate. “Ayodhya is a significant poll issue for the BJP, but the decision on the name of the candidate will be decided by the party,” the leader said.

Sources in the BJP said that leaders are banking on crossing the 300-seat margin if surveys within the party are of any indication. In the 2017 elections, the BJP had bagged 325 seats, paving the way for its win in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

As the country's most populous state heads towards polls, the BJP has been marred by desertions by several MLAs, beginning with Padrauna MLA Swami Prasad Maurya, who joined the Samajwadi Party. Desertions by OBC and Dalit leaders have swung the narrative slightly in favour of the SP, whose leader, former UP CM Akhilesh Singh, is making strong inroads, drawing huge crowds.

However, senior BJP leader said that they are not worried about these leaders leaving the party. “Those leaving the party will not make any difference, the leaders in the community where these leaders are from did not want to fight the elections with the BJP. Most of the issues raised by the OBC and backward classes leaders are misleading, the BJP has neither stopped the reservation of any community, nor had it left the issue of reservation pending,” the leader said.

Tickets have been given only to those who guarantee the party victory, the leader said. “(SP leader) Aparna Yadav may join or not, but she will not decide what seat to contest from. The party decides unequivocally,” the leader said.

The BJP will also not ally with Babu Singh Kushwaha's party, Jan Adhikar Party, the leader said.

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