Along with the development plank, the Bharatiya Janata Party is counting on the 'Gujarat formula' of dropping 'unpopular legislators' as a strategy to minimise the anti-incumbency factor and return to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Announcing the first list of candidates for the Chhattisgarh polls, the BJP dropped 18 of its 51 sitting legislators for next month's assembly polls in the state with a promise that 'more would be dropped in the second list'.
"We have dropped some of the sitting MLAs on the basis of the political and social realities in their constituencies. Some sitting MLAs in the second list would also be dropped," party's Central Election Committee Secretary Ananth Kumar told reporters.
As per sources, the party is all resolved to repeat the kind of selection process in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh too.
In Gujarat last year, the party stormed back to power defying all rules of anti-incumbency when it dropped 47 sitting legislators. The BJP managed to retain 34 of these seats forming almost 30 per cent of the strength of the party and which sent back Narendra Modi back to the power in the state.
"Around 40 of the 173 MLAs in Madhya Pradesh may miss their names in the list of candidates, the same would be in the case of Rajasthan. The party is convinced that all our state governments have done well and we cannot afford to lose because of the unpopularity of an individual leader. But it is too early to say who would be dropped and who would not," a senior leader told PTI.
The party is convinced that with the experiment of dropping 'unpopular legislators', poll issues would remain focused on the state's development and the 'misgovernance of UPA' at the Centre.
"We are fighting the polls on twin planks, one on the development under the state regime and other would be the misgovernance of the UPA government. There would be no anti-incumbency," senior party leader Venkiah Naidu told media persons a meeting of the Election Management Committee in New Delhi recently.
"But in Delhi, the Congress-led Sheila Dikshit government is faced with twin anti-incumbencies of the Centre and the state, we are sure to retain power in the capital and time would prove it," he added.
Besides dropping 'unpopular legislators', the saffron party is also trying to add to its numbers by giving proper representation to women and members of backward communities.
"It has been made clear to the state leadership that while we meet for finalising the candidates, the panel of names must surely have a woman," Naidu said.
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