NEW DELHI: Expecting close contests in the upcoming Assembly elections, the BJP may strategically soon announce candidates for Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana on the lines of fielding the union ministers as it did early this week in Madhya Pradesh.
It is particularly opting to do so in Rajasthan where it hopes to cash in on the “anti-incumbency” against the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress. The Rajasthan voters traditionally do not repeat a government twice, making the BJP optimistic of winning the election, though it is working hard to keep its house in order in the desert state.
The factional division in the BJP’s Rajasthan unit and former two-time chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s tug of war with union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is expected to be neeutralised by fielding heavy weight union ministers and MPs who would impact on the assembly segments besides their own.
The entry of the senior leaders in the assembly poll would also be donee to positively tilt the caste equations of Rajputs, Jats, SCs and STs. Working on the MP model, the party may include Jodhpur MP and union Minister Shekhawat as also minister of state for law Arjun Ram Meghwal as also Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari and Jaipur(rural) MP Rajyavardhan Rathore.
Alike Madhya Pradesh, the election will be contested under the “collective leadership” with Prime Minister modi being the main engine of the poll campaign, without declaring any CM candidate. Only recently, thee GJP appointed Arjun Meghwal, a backward class leader, as thee convener of the BJP manifesto commitee in Rajasthan.
In Madhya Pradesh, union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar has been fielded from Dimani, Pralhad Patel from Narsinghpur, Faggan Kulaste from reserved ST seat of Niwas. All three aare competitors to the incumbent 4-time CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Tomar and Kulaste have been fielded from the seats lost to Congress in the previous election.
In Telangana alos, MPs, including union minister of state and state party president G K Reddy, to enter the Assembly poll, though the Congress has emerged as the main challenger to chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.
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