With three out of the four BJP leaders in-charge of the election campaign in UP now emerging as candidates themselves, the party’s campaign is in jeopardy.
The list of 143 candidates released on Tuesday night in Delhi carries the name of Kalraj Misra and Surya Pratap Shahi as BJP candidates from Lucknow East and Pathardeva Assembly seats, respectively.
Party sources claim that the candidate of Ms Uma Bharti from Babina Assembly seat is also final and will be announced in the next list.
This mean that of the four leaders assigned the poll campaign in UP — namely Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharti, Kalraj Misra and state president Surya Pratap Shahi — three are contesting the polls themselves.
“All three leaders (Kalraj Misra, Surya Pratap Shahi, Uma Bharti) will have to devote considerable time to their own constituencies. Shahi and Uma Bharti have lost their last elections while Kalraj Misra has never contested one till date. Rajnath Singh will also devote most of his time to his son, Pankaj Singh’s constituency if the latter gets the ticket. In such a scenario, who will lead the campaign in the state?” a senior party legislator wanted to know.
Mr Kalraj Misra, the BJP’s national vice-president, is also heading the party’s state election management committee while Ms Uma Bharti is in charge of the “BJP Lao, UP Bachao” campaign.
Two other former state presidents, Dr Ramapati Ram Tripathi and Om Prakash Singh, are also contesting elections.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Mahant Yogi Adityanath, who wields considerable influence in eastern UP, is said to be “deeply upset” with the party leadership because the names of his supporters are missing from the first list and there are indications that four legislators owing allegiance to the Mahant may not be re-nominated. He rarely campaigns outside his area of influence.
“As things stand today, we have no one to guide us and supervise the campaign in UP because all leaders are contesting themselves,” said an MLA from Rohilkhand.
Other senior leaders in the party will be concentrating on the sons’ elections. Any outsider, who does not understand the complexities of the state, cannot be expected to oversee the campaign. The BJP leadership should have taken these things into account before deciding that all leaders will contest polls,” said another party MLA from Rohilkhand.
A party spokesman, however, said that there was no dearth of leaders in the BJP and the campaign would run successfully. “Every party leader is a party worker and every party worker is a leader on his own. Each one will run the campaign for the party,” the spokesman added.