After ruling BRS has been quick of the blocks in retaining most of the sitting candidates for almost all of the 119 constituencies, the BJP list of candidates contesting for the forthcoming Telangana Assembly elections is likely to take more time as the party wants to wait for the Congress party to release its list.
Top party sources explained, on condition of anonymity, that the BJP was hoping to entice quite a few disgruntled elements from the BRS if its leadership went ahead and changed a sizeable number of sitting MLAs as was widely speculated.
But that did not happen for various reasons and now the saffron party is hoping the Congress party will do a ‘hara-kiri’ in tickets distribution from which it hopes to benefit. “We have not even formed an election committee headed by the State president, which will narrow down the aspirants list in each constituency for the Central leadership to choose, till date,” they pointed out.
The Central leadership having faced a backlash over the ham-handed manner in which Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar was removed as the party president following sustained pressure mounted by the newcomers, egged in the background by a few veterans, is said to be treading cautiously.
An agency has been engaged to conduct surveys for the last one year about the party’s standing, probable candidates, strength of the other parties/candidates with reports being sent every fortnight to the Central leaders only.
The last time a list of aspirants for each constituency was prepared and sent was during Mr. Sanjay Kumar’s time as the president. Though there has been lot of political churning since then, there has been no official word if a fresh list has been prepared or whether the party is ready to accept fresh applications.
“The local leadership will usually shortlist the candidates but the central parliamentary board will take the final decision,” said the party sources. Way back in 1999, the party openly invited applications from interested candidates to put pressure on the then ally Telugu Desam but that was only once, they reminded.
“The central leadership has been calling the shots in every State in recent years and it is not likely to be different this time too. We only hope it will consider image, commitment, loyalty and credibility in identified winning constituencies even if it wants to welcome turncoats and those with moneybags,” said a senior leader.
There are apprehensions in the party that newcomers may have an overt influence in the tickets distribution and warn of demoralisation in the cadre leading to erosion of the party base. “We want an equitable mix of seniors and newcomers in the election committee for credible tickets distribution and this should be extended to funding too,” said another leader.
A few senior leaders rue that the central leadership has been loosening purse strings in funding election campaign of the ‘turncoats’. But the same enthusiasm has been missing in ‘helping’ the veterans, some of them have even sold their properties to fund their respective campaigns.
