With poll dates yet to be announced, the party has sent a clear message that it’s prepared for the battle and confident of securing a third term. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shifted into the fifth gear for the 2024 general elections, unveiling 195 candidates in its inaugural list .
Tickets have not been announced for Maharashtra and Bihar, where alliance seat-sharing talks are yet to be finalised. This strengthens the BJP’s claim of giving the highest representation to the backward, Dalit, and Adivasi communities. One ticket has also been given to a Muslim candidate in Kerala. In both places, there is an abundance of contenders. In Maharashtra, seats have to be divided among three parties – the BJP, the Shiv Sena (SHS), and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – and in Bihar, six parties have to be accommodated – the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the BJP, the Janata Dal (United) (JD-U), the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), and the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). Representatives from the LJP and the RLSP were conspicuously absent from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent rally in Aurangabad.
It has set an internal target of 80/80 due to the positive fervour generated post the inauguration of the Ram Mandir. Of the 195 seats announced, a majority – 51 – seats, are in Uttar Pradesh (26%). This is where the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) senses the maximum potential for gains, having secured 64 of the 80 seats in 2019. Out of the 195 seats announced, the BJP had won 152 in 2019 and lost 43. Among the 152 who won, the party has replaced 44 MPs (29%). Of the 43 candidates who lost in 2019, it has replaced 37. In total, there are 114 old faces (58%) and 81 new faces (42%). In Uttar Pradesh, 44 out of the 51 names announced are sitting MPs. That share is 13 out of 24 in Madhya Pradesh , 10 out of 15 in Gujarat, and three out of four in Telangana. As many as 52% of the candidates announced belong to the Other Backward Classes (OBC), or Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. Seats have also not been announced for Odisha, where there is speculation about the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) joining the NDA if a Bharat Ratna is awarded to Biju Patnaik, whose birth anniversary is on March 5.
