KOLKATA: In a meeting with a few MPs of the party on Tuesday evening in Kolkata, Home minister Amit Shah hinted that all the 18 representatives elected from West Bengal in the 2019 general elections may not be fielded in the next year’s Lok Sabha poll fray, said sources in the BJP.
Shah’s meeting with a few MPs in a hotel, before he flew to Delhi, delivered a clear message within the party that the saffron camp may replace some sitting MPs with new faces. “Shahji, in the meeting, made it clear that wining seats is the ultimate goal of the party and party’s victory is more important than the face of candidate. He also said that there should be no reason to get disappointed if an MP is not given ticket in the upcoming elections as the party will use him or her for securing victory in the electoral battle,” said a senior leader of the saffron camp.
Making deep inroads in West Bengal in the 2019 general elections, the saffron camp took its tally to 18 from two out of 42 LS seats. In north Bengal, the party bagged victory in seven seats out of eight and in Jungle Mahal, the backward region in the western part of the state, in all five seats.
Shah and BJP’s national president J. P. Nadda, during their Kolkata visit on Tuesday, held a meeting with a few MPs which include Locket Chatterjee from Hooghly constituency, Jagannath Chattopadhyay from Ranaghat, John Barla from Alipurduar, Nisith Pramanik from Cooch Behar and Subhas Sarkar from Bankura. The presidents of organisational districts of the constituency were present in meeting.
“Shah also told the state leaders of the party to make the sitting MPs, who will not be fielded, understand about the party’s poll strategy,” said the leader, adding, “Those MLAs of our party, whose performance is satisfactory, may be fielded in the LS polls replacing a few sitting MPs. Our party engaged a private professional agency to assess the performance of sitting MPs across the country and identified some of them for their poor performance in their constituency. We guess such sitting MPs will b axed from the list of candidates in the upcoming polls.”
‘Winning the ultimate aim’
Amit Shah made it clear that wining seats is the ultimate goal of the party and BJP’s victory is more important than the face of any candidate, according to a senior BJP leader. He added that denial of ticket shouldn’t be the reason for disappointment.