BJP may drop half of its sitting MLAs in Rajasthan

NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move, BJP is contemplating dropping more than half its sitting MLAs in Rajasthan to cushion its prospects in the assembly polls from the discontent against incumbent legislators. Well-placed party sources said 80-100 of the 160 sitting MLAs might be replaced in what could arguably be the biggest-ever political culling of incumbent MLAs belonging to any party.

The party move is also to send a message to lawmakers in other states as well as members of Lok Sabha about the risk of being dropped on the basis of feedback about their performance which is being gathered, apart from traditional channels, through PM Modi’s Namo app. The app is being increasingly used by people to give feedback on the performance of their representatives directly to the PM. “Voters could be revengeful as a large number of MLAs continued passing the buck and didn’t serve the electorate as per expectations,” said a source privy to the decision to replace a majority of sitting MLAs.

Sources said the party will field young first-time candidates to stem anti-incumbency as new faces, who have been involved in serving the people for years, can water down the anger among people and assure them of a better performance. Performance is a major issue in BJP deciding new candidates but changing caste equations in the state are an equally important factor to replace existing MLAs.


The Rajput community, traditional BJP supporters, seems to be drifting towards Congress whereas the Meenas in eastern Rajasthan are veering towards BJP after community leader Kirori Lal joined the party recently and was made Rajya Sabha MP. Among the three-poll bound states ruled by BJP, the party is said to be struggling the most in Rajasthan thanks to the state’s over three-decade trend of changing the government every five years.