Advani, Joshi, Shanta Kumar, Karia Munda unlikely to be given tickets in 2019.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to see a major transformation in the organisation, with most of the prominent leaders of the Atal-Advani era likely to take a back seat and faces from a “new” generation taking charge, in the next six months during which the Lok Sabha elections will be announced.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj this week announced her decision of not contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while her Cabinet colleague Uma Bharti, who shot to prominence during the Ram temple movement expressed her wish to stay away from electoral politics.
Party sources said party veteran L.K. Advani, who contributed a lot to building the organisation before and during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, may not be given ticket to contest elections because of his age. At present, he represents the Gandhinagar constituency. Similarly, another veteran, Murli Manohar Joshi, also may be deprived of a ticket. Both the leaders were quite powerful during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Other party leaders like former Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri, former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Shanta Kumar, Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, and Karia Munda also many not be given tickets as age is not on their side. Shatrughan Sinha and Yashwant Sinha have turned rebels.
Party sources said it is almost certain that Shatrughan Sinha will not be given a ticket from Patna Sahib this time. Yashwant Sinha’s Hazaribagh seat has already been given to his son Jayant Sinha.
Another powerful leader of the Atal-Advani era—Venkaiah Naidu—has become Vice President and he is unlikely to join electoral politics, as per tradition. Two other prominent leaders of the era—Jaswant Singh and Ananth Kumar—prominent faces of the Atal-Advani era, are no more.
Similar is the case of Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh—Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje and Raman Singh—who are leading the party’s charge in their respective states in the ongoing Assembly elections.
“This is the last chance for these veteran leaders, all from the Atal-Advani era, in their states to stay relevant in state politics. Those who manage to retain their forte may either continue in their post for the time being or the leadership may like to utilise their services at the Centre at a later stage. Those who lose may be asked to stay put in the state or be given some role at the national level in the organisation or given the post of Governor in future, depending upon the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections,” said a source.
The leadership would like to promote new faces at the state level who can steer the party in the long run.
“State level faces are very important for the growth of the organisation. For example, in poll-bound MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, we have strong faces. Though the BJP has found a strong face, Yogi Adityanath, in Uttar Pradesh, it is yet to find a credible face in another politically sensitive state, Bihar. Dharmendra Pradhan could be made BJP’s face in Odisha. Besides, the party would also like to look for strong faces in other important states like West Bengal,” he said.
There is a feeling within the party leadership that though Devendra Fadnavis, Trivendra Singh Rawat, Raghubar Das, Jai Ram Thakur, and Manohar Lal Khattar are discharging their duties as Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana respectively, they have still not been able to become the “face” of the party in these states. The party may like to look for other faces by the time the next Assembly elections are held there.