BJP to drop all MPs from Chhattisgarh this time

BJP has decided to drop all its ten sitting MPs from Chhattisgarh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in a bid to beat anti-incumbency after the party lost the Assembly elections in November last year.

BJP general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh Anil Jain told a news agency that the party will field new candidates in all the 11 Lok Sabha seats of the state and this has been approved by the party’s Central Election Committee.

BJP’s Saroj Pande had lost the Durg seat in 2009 to Congress leader Tamradwaj Sahu while its other ten candidates won. Sahu, who was the Congress state unit chief, later resigned from the seat and contested the Assembly polls. The Durg seat is vacant since November.

The decision to drop all sitting MPs from Chhattisgarh has been taken ostensibly to beat anti-incumbency and the rise of Congress in the state after a 15-year rule by the saffron party under Raman Singh.

Among the sitting BJP MPs are Abhishek Singh, Raman Singh’s son, who is a Lok Sabha member from Rajnandgaon. BJP is likely to give the ticket to Raman Singh, who has represented this constituency in the Lower House in the past, from this seat.

Former BJP chief whip in Lok Sabha Ramesh Bais has also been denied a ticket. He has won the Raipur seat seven times since 1989 and is a veteran party leader.

It remains to be seen if a conspicuous number of sitting MPs will similarly be dropped in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the two states where BJP lost Assembly polls along with Chhattisgarh. Some of the sitting MPs from these two states are keen on moving to another seat in 2019 polls to beat anti-incumbency. BJP plans to field ex-Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and ex-Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje in the Lok Sabha polls from their respective state, sources said.