By Dr. Gyan Pathak
BJP’s first list of candidates for Lok Sabha election 2024 remarkably exudes higher level of regimentation of the party under Narendra Modi. Strength of any regimentation of a political establishment is measured by control of its high command over the organisation, on the basis of which BJP high command was declared confident and strong, merely because many ministers and sitting MPs were denied party tickets and replaced by new faces.
However, such an exercise in announcing the tickets hides greater pitfalls, since many of the changes were result of authoritarianism in the name of internal surveys on winnability of the candidates. It was evident when several senior politicians, before or after being denied tickets, announced their retirements from active politics. Ground level political realities were found to be against BJP in many constituencies in their internal surveys. For example, one of the nominated candidates in West Bengal has said that he was unable to contest. BJP’s list has, however, several inherent deft moves in choice of candidates, which INDIA bloc, particularly the Congress needs to match if they want to do well against the BJP’s candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election.
Congress is a democratic party and has no regimentation such as we find in the RSS and all its wings including its political arm BJP, it cannot do and must not follow PM Narendra Modi’s way of autocratic control over the party leaders, but is certainly in need of establishing certain level of democratic discipline in the party. Democracy includes the co-existence of differing ideas but in such a manner that does not turn into indiscipline.
The recent trend in the Congress party is marked with many of its leaders making moves that can be considered indiscipline. Many are even switching to or tend to switch to BJP. The party leadership must take firm disciplinary action on such party leaders since they have no faith in “socialist secular democracy” and cannot prove to be asset for the party at a time when the party will have to battle with the “communal and authoritarian” idea of the RSS-BJP clan that want to establish Hindu Rashtra in place of the present “Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Federal State” under the Constitution of India. The last 10 years of BJP rule has undermined many of the India’s Constitutional provisions by changing legislations and pushing the country closer to a “Hindutva Authoritarian Regime”. In such a situation loyalty to the party must be established through democratic discipline, rather than whims and fancies of the Congress leadership that just encourages groupism and infighting.
INDIA block and Congress will need to take note of the pitfalls that underlie BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates, and come out with suitable political narrative and stronger candidates on every constituency to take on BJP. One can’t deny the fact that INDIA bloc has lately emerged stronger, which is also reflected in the BJP’s first list of candidates which opted to drop sitting MPs and ministers in large numbers. BJP had actually got done surveys to know how much winnability remains for BJP’s sitting MPs in particular and BJP in general. On the basis of the results of the internal survey, BJP announced names of 195 candidates in its first list released on March 2, covering 16 states and two Union Territories.
Out of 195 constituencies for which candidates were announced BJP has dropped as many as 42 sitting MPs. This is indeed a very large per centage. Since this hard decision has been made on the basis of internal assessment of weaknesses of the party and its present candidates, it is an indirect revelation that BJP’s strength has been substantially reduced in about 21.5 per cent of the constituencies it had won in 2019. The replacements were stark in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Assam. BJP had won 47 out of 55 Lok Sabha seats in these states.
Congress-AAP alliance in Delhi had compelled the BJP to change its candidate in Delhi, where even former Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan was dropped from its candidate list along with three others. Out of five candidates announced in the state on one sitting MP was given ticket. In Assam, the party has dropped 5 sitting MPs. Union Minister Rameswar Teli has also been dropped. In Madhya Pradesh 11 sitting MPs were replaced. The Union Minister of State from West Bengal John Barla has also been replaced. Though replacements show the boldness of the BJP leadership on the basis of winnability, uncertainty remains about new faces, since one can’t be sure about how much anti-incumbency against the BJP could be mitigated by such changes.
Congress needs to take similar bold decision to take on the BJP candidates in matter of selection of its candidates, not only on the basis of winnability but also taking into consideration the past record of the candidates who had been controversial by giving reckless statements. BJP’s first list shows that many candidates who put the BJP on defensive by their outrageous statements were dropped. Pragya Thakur and Ramesh Bidhuri were dropped from this category of people.
However, several tainted candidates were given tickets because they remained loyal to the BJP high command, such as Union MoS Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ is accused of mowing down farmers during the 2020-21 farmers’ protest. There are many leaders accused of corruption found place in the first list. The Opposition must come out with the list of such persons to expose the partisan approach of Modi government that actually reward the tainted if they are with them and take action when they are with the opposition.
INDIA alliance led by Congress, must take note of the social engineering that BJP leadership tried to underline through the first list. Out of 195 candidates, 107 belong to backward communities with27 from SCs, 18 from STs, and 57 from OBCs. Gender issue has also been taken into consideration and 28 women were given ticket. To inject younger blood, BJP has announced 47 candidates under age of 50.
Congress and INDIA block must match to the BJP’s strategy with better social engineering and better selection of candidates to leverage their strength in all respect, including its ideology based political narrative, and commitment towards “socialist, secular, democratic, and federal republic” principle. (IPA
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