BJP To Give Sitting Rajya Sabha MPs Ticket To Contest General Election

The ruling BJP Government at the Centre is reported to have firmed up plans to give tickets to all its sitting Rajya Sabha MPs to contest the Lok Sabha polls next year.

News portal The Federal quoting senior BJP leaders has published an article stating that BJP wants to make the MPs utilize their support base they have built during the mass contact programmes while implementing welfare measures in the states.

The report, however, said four key MPs who are holding key positions in the government will be spared the rigour of contesting the polls given their role as ministers holding crucial portfolios.  Their expertise might be needed in party during the campaigning. They are Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.

The BJP Rajya Sabha strength is 92 MPs and if the thinking in the party is executed on the ground, 88 MPs will be hitting the battleground right away. The elections are less than 10 months away.

“It will help the BJP contest nearly 90 seats with established candidates who are well known in their respective states and have been working in different Lok Sabha constituencies for at least one term. This is part of the expansion plans of the BJP because these MPs can help expand the party in states where the BJP is not so strong,” the Federal quoted a senior BJP leader as saying.

“This move will energise the party because it will help the BJP replace non-performing MPs in the Lok Sabha with Rajya Sabha MPs in states and also bring new talent to the Rajya Sabha,”  AK Verma, Director, Centre for the Study of Society and Politics, Kanpur, the news portal quoted him as saying.

Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan are among the states that have sent the maximum number of MPs to the Upper House.