Aiming for 29/29, MP BJP focuses on 7 LS seats vacated for Assembly polls

Bhopal: After registering a landslide victory in the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party has now started preparations for the Lok Sabha elections.

While the work on Mission-29 has started, the party now faces a tough task to pick candidates for those seven seats which the MPs had vacated for contesting the assembly polls.

There are 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had won 28 seats, while Congress could grab only Chhindwara seat which is being represented by Nakul Nath.

Now BJP is also eyeing Chhindwara seat and that’s why Mission-29 has been planned to win all the 29 seats.

As per its strategy, BJP had fielded a total of seven MPs including three former Union ministers in the assembly elections. Of these, five won and two lost.

Now new faces will be required to replace those who have become MLAs from MPs, but it remains to be seen whether those who lost in the assembly elections will be given a chance or not.

Among the former BJP MPs who were fielded in assembly polls, Narendra Singh Tomar represented Morena – a Kshatriya-dominated area -- while Prahlad Singh Patel was an MP from Damoh – an OBC-dominated locality.

Rakesh Singh represented Jabalpur -- general category-dominated parliamentary constituency, while Riti Pathak was an MP from Sidhi -- Brahmin class-dominated Lok Sabha constituency. Similarly, Uday Pratap Singh represented Hoshangabad, general class-dominated parliamentary seat.

The two former MPs, who faced defeat in assembly polls, are Ganesh Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste. Ganesh Singh represented Satna -- a parliamentary constituency dominated by OBC class -- while Kulaste was an MP from Mandla, a Lok Sabha seat, dominated by tribal class.

Now questions are also being raised within the party that if the MPs, who lost the assembly polls, are given a chance, what message will be sent to the public. Keeping that in mind, the party is assessing the capability of the workers belonging to OBC category in Satna and tribal category in Mandla.

Political analysts believe that BJP will have to search candidates for not only those seats which the former MPs vacated after winning assembly polls, but it will have to also focus on changing the faces in those places where the party lost. Satna and Mandla are those parliamentary constituencies where the party will have to come up with an effective strategy.