Why is BJP delaying announcement of candidates for big seats in MP?

By fielding ‘millionaire politician’ Pankaj Sanghvi as its Indore candidate for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has now declared nominees for all 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh and the question is coming back to why the BJP is holding back on names to five important constituencies in the state. Four of these seats are BJP strongholds.

The BJP has, so far, failed to announce candidates for seats like Bhopal, Indore and Vidisha—considered 'complete citadels' for the saffron party. It has also not declared names for the Guna seat, from where ex-Union minister and sitting Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia is contesting again, and the Sagar seat too.

While the BJP claims this delay is part of its strategy to declare names of candidates at a suitable time, the Congress is calling it a sign of ‘totally shattered confidence’ in the saffron party. Political watchers, meanwhile, are divided in their opinions on the issue, but the common perception is that the BJP is in a dilemma over candidates for the seats.

The Bhopal parliamentary seat has come into sharp focus after former chief minister Digvijaya Singh was declared as a virtual 'surprise' candidate by the Congress on March 24. The BJP has failed to field a candidate against him so far, though big names like ex-chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Uma Bharti have done the rounds. But both these BJP veterans have declined to contest. The current grapevine is that the BJP might go for Pragya Bharti—who was acquitted of charges in the infamous Malegaon blast and Sunil Joshi murder cases.

In Indore, despite outgoing Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan pulling out of the reckoning publicly, the indecision on a BJP candidate continues. BJP stalwart Kailash Vijayvargiya, considered a rival to Mahajan, has distanced himself from questions of contesting. Vidisha, which was represented by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for two terms and is a complete BJP stronghold, also awaits a candidate.

“After the assembly polls and due to the work of the Congress government in the 75 days that we got, the confidence of the BJP stands totally shattered and big leaders are either declining to contest or are not acceptable to the cadre. They are in a mess and it shows,” Shobha Oza, the chief of the Congress media cell, says.

BJP chief spokesperson Deepak Vijayvargiya, however, questions whether it was a big achievement for the Congress just to name Digvijaya Singh this far ahead of polling date. “We go by our own strategy and we are prepared enough on the ground to comfortably field candidates at the right time. We will do it, may be, in a day or two and still have enough days to go,” he said. Bhopal, Indore, Guna and Sagar go to polls on May 12 and Vidisha on May 19.

Senior journalist Girish Upadhayay agrees that there might be a strategy behind holding back of names. “They probably want the discourse to revolve around Bhopal and Vidisha and let other seats not come into focus. These are their strongholds, so they might not be worried,” he says.

Political analyst and senior journalist Jairam Shukla sees a different strategy. “I feel if Priyanka Gandhi contests from Varanasi, PM Narendra Modi might consider Vidisha a second seat as it is very safe. Similarly, they might have some big names in mind to field from the safe seats of Indore and Bhopal,” he said.

Another journalist, however, disagrees, saying that the saffron party is facing infighting and indecision on the big seats. “Big names do not want to take the risk and some others are facing internal opposition. There seems to be a dilemma before the BJP,” he says.