Mumbai
With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections a few months away, the Bharatiya Janata Party is on the lookout for fresh, new and popular faces to be fielded as their candidates for both the Assembly elections later this year and the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The BJP is considering over 50 bureaucrats and popular faces from different walks of life, with the party leadership in talks with serving and former IAS and IPS officers who will be fielded as Lok Sabha candidates. In this regard, senior party functionaries have been entrusted with the responsibility of finding out candidates from across the country. Ex-IGP of Maharashtra Police, Pratap Dighavkar recently joined the BJP and may be a candidate from Dhule in north Maharashtra.
The second name that is being heard of is Sumit Wankhede, personal secretary of Devendra Fadnavis, who has been associated with him for the last two decades and is likely to contest the election from Wardha district in Vidarbha. Sumit Wankhede is in action mode, touring the district on a war-footing.
Praveen Pardesi, a senior IAS now working with the Niti Aayog and who is a former personal secretary to Devendra Fadnavis, is likely to join the BJP. Pardesi, during his earlier posting, was popular for taking swift and diligent action during the Latur earthquake. He was also to become Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, but missed out narrowly despite being a close confidant of Devendra Fadnavis.
Another senior bureaucrat is RadheshyamMopalwar, who is currently the personal secretary to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and is likely to be the candidate from either Parbhani or Hingoli in Marathwada. Mopalwar has served in several districts of Marathwada and is a popular face.
A few more bureaucrats including IAS and IPS officers are in touch with the BJP leadership and deliberations are on, a senior party leader told The Sunday Guardian on the condition of anonymity. Parambir Singh, an ex-super cop of Maharashtra, is very close to the BJP. Several allegations had been levelled against him, but he eventually received a clean chit and his suspension was revoked. There is speculation about Singh being made a candidate in a Gujjar-dominated seat in Haryana or Rajasthan and not in Maharashtra for sure.
Sameer Wankhede, former NCB Zonal Director, Mumbai, has already met a few Sangh leaders and BJP functionaries at Nagpur and told them of his willingness to join the BJP and contest the election, as he hails from the Akola district of Vidarbha. The BJP is thinking of dropping several sitting MPs across the country.
The reason BJP is zeroing in on Maharashtra is that the state has the second highest number of seats after Uttar Pradesh, and BJP, with NCP’s AjitPawar and Eknath Shinde in alliance, is eyeing to get 42 out of the state’s 48 seats. The BJP leadership has recently started reviewing and monitoring the performance of its MPs.