Ahead of Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh due on November 12, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has introduced 19 new faces in its slate of candidates.
The party has dropped 11 incumbent legislators and changed the constituencies of four candidates.
The party leadership released its list of candidates to the 68-member state assembly, all seats in which it is contesting, after holding marathon talks and conducting an internal survey to gauge the opinion of BJP workers.
“Anti-incumbency was the main reason to drop incumbent MLAs,” Himachal BJP president Suresh Kashyap told Moneycontrol. “During multiple reviews, the party leadership noticed that people and party workers had resentment (against the dropped legislators), following which tickets were denied to them.”
Anti-incumbency
“Many people had complaints that the MLAs did not take up developmental works seriously in their assembly segments. We are accountable to people on ground and it’s important to consider their aspirations,” Kashyap said.
The new candidates have been active on the ground as ordinary workers and the people have shown their faith in them.
“In times of ant-incumbency, new candidates have more acceptance. We didn’t want to take any chance and changed the tradition in ticket distribution,” said Kashyap.
The denial of tickets to incumbent legislators or to those who fought the elections in 2017 has certainly disappointed them.
“The state unit is working on it to ensure the resentment doesn’t last long. The party’s success is important, we are making our attempts,” said Kashyap.
AAP, Congress
Two members of the legislative assembly who recently quit the Indian National Congress and joined the BJP are being fielded as candidates. Pawan Kajal will contest the Kangra seat and Lakhwinder Rana the Nalagarh seat.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced its list of candidates. The party is also campaigning for power in poll-bound Gujarat, where electoral contests have traditionally been between the BJP and Congress.
The Himachal BJP chief says AAP will have no impact in the upcoming elections.
“AAP has not gained any ground in Himachal Pradesh. They won’t get a single seat from here. However, Congress’s strong opposition cannot be denied. We have strategically fielded our candidates. BJP will repeat government once again,” Kashyap said.
The last date for the filing of nominations is October 25; the papers will be scrutinized on October 27. The last date for the withdrawal of nominations is October 29.
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