By Faisal Fareed, Twocircles.net
In two days, BJP is likely to declare its first list of candidates. With this, the internal tussle within the BJP has intensified. This time the tussle is between the BJP cadre and leaders who have recently joined BJP. Both sets of people are, of course, vying for tickets.
Already, several protests have been held for these turncoats by BJP cadres demanding that they should not be given tickets. So far 24 sitting BJP MLAs have joined BJP. Obviously, they have not come to become workers in BJP: their agenda is to fight elections for the party.
The list includes—Swami Prasad Maurya (Padrauna), Rajesh Tripathi (Chillupar), Rajni Tiwari (Sawaijpur), Om Kumar (Nahtaur), Romi Sahni (Palia), Mahaveer Rana (Behat), Dharam Singh Saini (Nakud), Ramesh Kushwaha (Lalitpur), Brijesh Verma (Mallawa), Puran Prakash (Baldev), Bala Prasad Awasthi (Mohammadi), Genda Lal Choudhary (Hathras), Chhotelal Verma (Fatehabad), Indal Singh (Sikandra), Sher Bahadur Singh (Jalalpur), Shyam Prakash (Gopamau), Ajay Kumar (Bara), Madhuri Verma (Nanpara), Pradeep Choudhary (Gangoh), Vijay Dubey (Khadda), Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Luknow Cantt), Sanjai Jaiswal (Rudhauli) and Dalbeer Singh (Barauli).
Besides this, nearly 100 former MLAs, former MPs and other senior contenders have joined BJP. Most of them want tickets for themselves, their sons, daughters and other family members.
But such developments are not going unnoticed. There has been severe opposition from BJP cadre to these turncoats. In Agra, BJP workers torched an effigy of Chhotey Lal Verma when he joined BJP while in Aligarh, BJP workers showed black flags to Union HRD minister Prakash Javedkar to protest against the joining of RLD legislator Dalbeer Singh.
In Lalitpur, BJP’s district unit has given it in writing that if BSP MLA Ramesh Kushwaha who has joined the party is given a ticket, there may be a revolt in the party. Workers from Sarojini Nagar in Lucknow too have protested against giving tickets to outsiders at BJP’s state office.
Unfazed by the opposition, the turncoats are working presenting themselves as candidates of BJP in their constituencies. All of them are making the same claim: they have been given assurance from party high command.
Meanwhile, the state election committee of BJP has met in Lucknow and will submit its report to Central Election Committee which will declare tickets. While SP and its internal feuds have so far garnered more attention, it remains to be seen if the BJP cadres accept the new inductees as one of their own if the turncoats are indeed given tickets as promised.