The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh is likely to field new faces in more than half of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
There are 29 LS seats in Madhya Pradesh of which the BJP holds 28, while Nakul Nath of Congress is the Member of Parliament from Chhindwara.
The BJP is likely to bench MPs who have contested and won multiple times as well as those who have not performed as expected during their current term, sources said. These numbers might add up to 11, while five MPs have already become MLAs and gotten new responsibilities at the state level. Thus, at least 16 new faces are likely to contest in the upcoming polls.
Moreover, as in assembly polls of 2023, the BJP is likely to announce at least some candidates well in advance and the first list is expected in February itself. These seats are those in which the BJP is comparatively weaker or has lost.
Going by the data from the recent assembly election, the BJP got less votes than the Congress in 10 Lok Sabha seats, compared to the 2019 LS polls. However, this might not mean much since the electorate in the state has in recent years voted differently in assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Yet, to minimize chances of defeat, the BJP has reportedly decided upon the criteria for candidate selection and will take a final decision on the matter during a central election committee meeting to be held in February.
According to the criteria, the leaders who have been members of parliament for more than three terms will not be given tickets to pave the way for new faces. Also, the poor performers will not be repeated, party sources have said.
In Madhya Pradesh, seven MPs including three union ministers, were given assembly tickets. Of these, five won and they resigned from their membership of parliament. While ex-union minister Narendra Singh Tomar has become the assembly speaker, another former union minister Prahlad Singh Patel, Rao Uday Pratap Singh and Rakesh Singh have been made ministers in the Mohan Yadav cabinet. However, Riti Pathak, who won from Sidhi, did not get a cabinet berth.
The two who lost – Faggan Singh Kulaste (union minister) from Mandla and Ganesh Singh from Satna are likely to find themselves out of the Lok Sabha polls arena on two grounds. First is their loss in assembly polls and secondly, Kulaste has been an MP six times and Singh four times.
Likewise, two other MPs - union minister Virendra Kumar Khatik from Tikamgarh, who has been an MP for six terms, and Chhatar Singh Darbar of Dhar, who has been an MP for three terms - might find themselves out of the race.
Among the poor performers are Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal, Janardan Mishra of Rewa, Vivek Narayan Shejwalkar of Gwalior, Raj Bahadur Singh of Sagar, Gajendra Singh Patel (Khargone), Anil Firozia (Ujjain) and Rodmal Nagar of Rajgarh.
Sources said that the party is likely to consider young faces linked with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology as new candidates, in a bid to further strengthen the message of generational change in leadership.
In such circumstances, it remains to be seen whether ex-CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is considered for Lok Sabha. Other seniors like Gopal Bhargava, who find themselves out of the state cabinet after a long time, might also not get a chance.
Focus on winning Chhindwara
BJP had already started focusing on the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat during assembly polls preparations itself. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is personally paying attention to the seat in a bid to claim it. Chhindwara has been one seat that the BJP has never been able to win, save for a short stint of ex-CM Sunderlal Patwa, for about a year in 1997.
Ex-chief minister of Congress, Kamal Nath was the Member of Parliament from 1980 till 2018, save between 1996 and 1998 (when his wife Alka Nath and then Patwa were elected). Nath’s son Nakul won the 2019 polls after Kamal Nath became the MP CM. However, despite BJP’s focus on the seat, it lost in all the seven assembly constituencies that are part of the Chhindwara LS in the November 2023 polls. The ruling party is thus likely to announce a candidate here well in advance and start a massive campaign to win the seat.
