AP BJP Getting Ready to Contest All Assembly, LS Seats

Vijayawada: AP BJP is getting ready to contest from all the 175 State Legislative Assembly constituencies as well as the total 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.

Based on directions of the BJP national leadership, three-member panels called Election Management Committees have been constituted, one each for a district. The task of these committees is to identify the interested candidates in the districts to contest in the ensuing polls on behalf of BJP with the support of local party leaders.

There is pro-forma with 37 criteria to identify whether a candidate meets the necessary guidelines to be a candidate of BJP. These include the candidate’s ability to influence voters, his / her ability and caste considerations.

The election committees will narrow down on suitable party candidates and the party leadership will take a final decision on the contestant who will be fighting the election on behalf of the BJP from the assembly or parliament constituency.

Top BJP leaders, including party president J.P. Nadda, union home minister Amit Shah and union defence minister for Rajnath Singh are expected to visit AP shortly to take stock of preparedness of the party in facing the twin elections.

Leaders of AP BJP are eagerly awaiting the decision of the party national leadership on the party’s alliance with Jana Sena and Telugu Desam, even as the two parties are getting ready for a seat sharing arrangement among themselves, apart from releasing a common manifesto.

State leaders are expecting that their party top brass will take a decision on party’s alliance with JS and TDP after consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22.

Political analysts say when AP BJP allied with TDP and got the support of Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena in 2014 polls, it managed to win four MLA and two MP seats. Two members of the BJP also became ministers in the then N. Chandrababu Naidu cabinet.

However, when BJP contested all alone in 2019, it did not win a single seat in the assembly or the parliament.

BJP leaders say as all opposition parties are getting united with a common objective to dethrone the ruling YSR Congress in the ensuing polls, their party is likely to ally with JS and TD to free the state from Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rule.

A BJP senior leader said, “While starting our preparations for the polls in AP by selecting our contestants, we are expecting our national leadership to announce its decision on the party’s alliance with JS and TD soon.”