All BJP aspirants to be meticulously 'screened'
New Delhi: Getting a BJP ticket for the impending Lok Sabha elections in 2019 will be no cakewalk.
With BJP lawmakers stoking controversy with their utterances, the party has decided to screen all new entrants/ ticket aspirants carefully.
At a meeting of party general secretaries', held on Saturday at the new headquarters of BJP here, the top leadership has made it very clear that the credentials of all new applicants (outsiders) will be checked through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) network, a party source said.
Among the elected members in the last 2014 general elections, nearly 100 members joined the BJP from Congress, including two union ministers.
Last time around 'winnability' was the prime factor for giving tickets to members of other political parties. Moreover, with the recent reports of BJP's dwindling acceptance and a probable depletion of seats from states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, the party top leadership is also set to replace more than 100 veterans with new faces. Therefore, the party is also ready to embrace young leaders, having excellent communication skills even as party spokespersons—to improve public perception about the party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The party will rely on ground level feedback or reports from the NaMo app to judge the performance of existing MPs in the last four years.
The age factor may also rule out party veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi, BC Khanduri and Shanta Kumar.
BJP has also set up an 11-member committee, 'Chunav Taiyari Toli' in each state focusing on strengthening the party's base there.
The committee will also monitor the teams, work on strengthening the booth-level organisation, and boost the Shakti Kendras.
A meeting chaired by the BJP chief Amit Shah also took stock of the developmental work undertaken by the respective Morchas. Each of the seven Morchas is headed by a general secretary, which has been tasked with rolling out the party's development schemes at the grassroots level.
