BJP may deny Lok Sabha tickets to 57 sitting MPs in Uttar Pradesh after survey detects little connect with masses

The BJP, which is facing an anti-incumbency wave in Uttar Pradesh, made stronger by the alliance between the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), might deny tickets to 57 sitting MPs, reports said. The saffron party’s leadership is formulating a game plan to counter the alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

A few BJP MPs are already “in touch” with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP president Mayawati, CNN-News18 reported. Once arch rivals, SP and BSP announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, criticising the BJP for creating an atmosphere of an “undeclared Emergency” in the country. “The BJP and its allies should be stopped from coming to power at the Centre at any cost,” Mayawati had said.

The BJP decided to deny sitting MPs tickets after an internal survey of the party’s parliamentarians relayed negative reports and showed that the politicians had not followed BJP president Amit Shah’s mandate of creating awareness about the Centre’s schemes and policies on the ground.

#NewsAlert -- @BJP4India set to deny tickets to more than 50 sitting MPs. Sources tell CNN-News18 that few of them in touch with Mayawati and @yadavakhilesh. Detailed inputs by @pranshumisraa. | #BattleOf2019 pic.twitter.com/grtuQP2w4q

— News18 (@CNNnews18) January 14, 2019

Shah conveyed the decision to the MPs at a meeting on 9 January, CNN-News18 reported. As the BSP-SP alliance is likely to appeal to multiple sections of society, including Dalits, the BJP is looking to field new faces in Uttar Pradesh to fight the anti-incumbency sentiments.

The BJP survey was conducted by a US-based research institute, which interviewed people in at least 800 blocks in the state,  UNI  reported. A party leader said the “holistic” survey included the opinions of people from over 97,000 villages in Uttar Pradesh.

“The basic finding of this study was that a majority of the MPs failed to connect with the masses. Selection of beneficiaries of different schemes was left to the administration, and these MPs never tried to meet them or make an attempt to tell them that whatever benefits they had got was because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath,” the BJP leader was quoted saying.

The survey said: “The farm loan waiver has failed to make any political impact as BJP leaders failed to make farmers realise that it was the Adityanath government that was instrumental in extending that sop. With the passage of time, the memory faded, and now farmers do not talk about this.”