KOLHAPUR : As many as 50 candidates in the fray on BJP tickets are 'imports' from other major political parties, with the Congress and NCP together accounting for a generous 'contribution' of 35 such names. BJP hopes these names, many of them with considerable local clout, would improve its vote share in constituencies it doesn't even have a toehold on.
As it turns out, BJP had reached out to a handpicked set of potential rebels in each major party or those who had been denied tickets, but mainly names confident of winning the election on their own. The BJP, fresh from its split from Sena, then made them an offer they possibly couldn't refuse contest on the lotus symbol, not as an independent. The candidates took up the offer hoping the dual anti-incumbency and Modi wave would work in their favour.
Whether the gamble would pay off will be known only on October 19, but for now there is much criticism of BJP's move. Social media platforms of WhatsApp and Facebook are flooded with the list of these candidates, with both Shiv Sena and NCP backing the publicity of their names. They have strongly objected to BJP's poaching and said the party was finding it difficult to contest the election on its own and hence has 'imported' candidates from other parties. MNS chief Raj Thackeray has been reading the import list since Sunday reading.
The top brass of BJP admits it has accepted a 'few' candidates from other parties and that the decision was taken for areas where the party had suffered defeats in the earlier elections. The party's leaders said their logic was simple__ get a winning candidate wherever the party had a weak base.
"We never denied we haven't taken any candidate who was a member of another party in the past. It's a pure political decision and nothing to be attacked by opposition. There are 72 seats where BJP and Shiv Sena have lost many times since their alliance. Of these, 53 were Shiv Sena's seats and 19 were ours. Once the alliance was snapped we decided to allow capable candidates to contest from these parties," Vinod Tawade, senior BJP leader told TOI.
Tawde said that BJP had given candidature to 22 leaders who had recently joined the party. "Those leaders have a strong local connect, and ultimately BJP will be strengthened in their areas. If other parties are criticising us, they should also tell people that BJP has its own party loyals in over 200 constituencies," he added.
However, there are several examples such as Laxman Jagtap (NCP) and Amal Mahadik (Congress) who switched to BJP the day the party split from Sena, which indicates BJP was candidate hunting until the last minute.
Political observers said BJP had taken a calculated risk in importing the candidates, eyeing their individual winning capabilities.
"Most of these candidates are local influential leaders. BJP hopes to benefit from their influence in these regions. For instance, in Western Maharashtra, the party's influence is less compared to NCP and Congress, which have a strong cooperative network. The BJP had imported candidates from these two parties mostly in this region. Some of them are capable enough to win the election as an independent," said Ashok Chousalkar, political analyst.
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