20 BJP MPs may lose tickets in UP, seek greener pastures

Lucknow: About 20 BJP MPs, who stand the risk of losing their tickets for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, have started exploring possibilities in opposition parties.

The BJP has almost made it clear that it would change the tickets on 40 Lok Sabha seats and most of those being denied tickets have already accessed the list.

MPs like Savitri Bai Phule, Yeshwant Singh and Chhotelal Kharwar, who unfurled a banner of revolt against the party leadership, could also face the axe while Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Mr Kalraj Misra would be pushed into retirement due to the age factor.

A sitting BJP MP from eastern Uttar Pradesh said, “Since we have come to know that we may not be re-nominated for the 2019 elections, it is only natural that we are probing possibilities in other parties. As politicians, we cannot sit at home for the next five years.”

According to sources in the BSP, nine BJP MPs have contacted the leadership and are lobbying for a BSP ticket in the upcoming elections.

“Some of them have met Ms Mayawati who has asked them to wait. Besides, these nine MPs, we are getting feelers from six more MPs, which shows that the BJP is being discarded by its own leaders”, said a BSP functionary.

About half a dozen BJP MPs are also in touch with the Samajwadi Party. Some of them have even met Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

The leader of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, Om Prakash Rajbhar, has also been cozying up with the Samajwadi Party, and his meeting with SP leader Shivpal Yadav in Varanasi last month, is no longer a secret.

Interestingly, four BJP MPs have also contacted the Congress leadership for tickets. The Congress is waiting for the political situation to crystallise, especially regarding the alliance, before it gives them any assurance.

Apart from MPs, about a dozen BJP MLAs who are keen to contest the Lok Sabha elections, are also contacting opposition parties for tickets.

“As a MLA, there is nothing I can look forward to because the government is blind to our problems and deaf to our pleas. If I can get a ticket form an opposition party, I would prefer to contest the Lok Sabha elections rather than suffer here for the next four years,” said a BJP MLA from central Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP, on the other hand, is planning to play safe and field its popular legislators in the Lok Sabha elections.

In Kanpur, for instance, M.M. Joshi is likely to be replaced by Uttar Pradesh  minister Satish Mahana.  

Similarly, another Uttar Pradesh minister Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi is being said to be party’s choice for the Allahabad seat.

Uttar Pradesh ministers Brijesh Pathak and Shrikant Sharma could also end up as candidates in the Lok Sabha polls.