Half of UP MPs from BJP may not get second chance

The BJP may not re-nominate around half its 68 MPs, from Uttar Pradesh, for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The saffron party is wary about a possible alliance between the Samajwadi party, the Bahujan Samaj party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and some other regional outfits in the state, ahead of the general elections.

The MPs may not get a second chance owing to their performance, which hasn't been "'satisfactory".

Partry sources said that the BJP could field some of its powerful and influential ministers and legislators in place of the ''ageing" and ''non-performing'' MPs.

They said that the central leadership had already told the state top-brass that it wanted to field those candidates who had a better chance of winning seats.

''The ability to win is going to be the sole criteria for contesting the polls,'' a senior UP BJP leader told DH, in Lucknow.

The leader, however, admitted that not many had evinced an interest in contesting the Lok Sabha elections.

Sources said that most of the sitting MPs, who would not be re-nominated, had been told about the party's decision.

Some of them had publicly criticised the party's leadership.

Kalraj Mishra, the Deoria MP and a senior party leader, slammed the Yogi-government in the state over the killing of an Apple executive by a police constable.

Mishra, who had been dropped from a Union ministry post owing to the age criteria set by the party, was told that he will not be re-nominated, sources said.

Another MP, Shyama Charan Gupta of Allahabad, questioned the ''performance'' criteria and said that it was difficult to ''measure'' the same.

Savitri Bai Phule, a party MP from Bahariach, has been attacking the state and the Central government over what she claims is their ''failure'' to ensure safety to the Scheduled Castes in Uttar Pradesh.

BJP sources said that the party would take care to ensure that the ''caste equation'' was maintained in view of the possible grand alliance between the Opposition parties.

The BJP had won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2014 polls but lost three seats— Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana— in the by-polls later.