BJP Likely to Field New Faces in 2024 General Election

New Delhi: The BJP could field new faces in at least one-fourth of the parliamentary constituencies it won in 2019, for the 2024 general election. One of reasons for fielding new leaders, sources said, is also to check anti-incumbency.

The party is likely to announce the names of at least 100 candidates by February-March for the Lok Sabha polls that are due in April-May and some of them may also be for seats considered as Opposition strongholds such as Rae Bareli held by Sonia Gandhi and the Sharad Pawar bailiwick of Baramati, now held by his daughter Supriya Sule. Of these 100 seats, the sources said, many are those the party had lost in 2019.

With the BJP’s internal surveys suggesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has only risen and the nationalism plank is resonating high with people, the party, sources said, could also field new faces in some of the seats considered as the party’s strongholds.

Sources said that Modi, during his meetings with the BJP leadership, often suggests that the party should look for ways to promote new leadership in the organisation and had also suggested that the elections should also be seen as such an opportunity.

Sources said there are nearly 40 such “high profile” parliamentary constituencies which the BJP had never won or won just once or twice in the past two decades, for which the party leadership is seeking credible candidates.

The party leadership, sources said, will also be fielding new faces for seats where internal surveys have suggested anti-incumbency is high against its representative.

There are nearly 160 Lok Sabha seats, which the BJP has been micro-managing, which the party failed to win during the last polls. Though most of these seats are in the southern region, the party is confident that its 2019 tally will only increase this time.