New Delhi: The BJP fielded Union ministers and Members of Parliament (MPs) in the coming assembly polls on their request, Home Minister and the party’s chief strategist Amit Shah has said.
In an interview with The Times of India, he remarked: “We have seen many people moving from state politics to the central arena. By the same token, if a senior party leader feels that he has had his fill of central politics and wants to move to his state, it is incumbent upon the party to consider their requests on merit.”
In September, the BJP named three Union ministers, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste, and four MPs, Rakesh Singh, Ganesh Singh, Reeti Pathak and Uday Pratap Singh, as party candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. The party has also fielded another seven MPs in Rajasthan and four in Chhattisgarh.
Senior ministers have privately spoken about their reluctance to fight assembly polls to ThePrint. “I have never fought assembly elections and was preparing for next year’s Lok Sabha elections,” rued one of them soon after candidate list was announced in Madhya Pradesh.
Earlier, BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayavargiya, after being fielded in Madhya Pradesh, had said he was “surprised” but would accept the party’s “command”.
Addressing a party meeting on 26 September, Vijayvargiya, a Shah confidant who has been fielded from Indore-1, said, “Ek mindset hota hai na ladne ka, apne ko toh jana hai, bhashan…ab bade neta ho gaye, hath jodne kaha jayenge…to bhasan dena aur nikal jana…ye socha tha humne toh… (There’s a mindset to fight, to assert oneself. Now that we’ve become senior leaders, who would go and fold hands in public. Give a speech and then leave… That’s what we had thought).”
Speaking to ThePrint earlier, Vijayvargiya had said, “The decision taken by the party can’t be questioned…whether you feel they are right or wrong. Whatever the party decides is right, so if the party has decided not to give two tickets in one family, it is correct.” He was probably referring to his son Akash Vijayvargiya who was denied a party ticket from Indore-3.
Meanwhile, Shah also strongly denied that a “collective leadership is hampering party prospects in Rajasthan”. The BJP has not projected any leader as the CM candidate in any state except Telangana, hinting the race was still open for the likes of incumbent CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia.
On the fate of Chouhan and Scindia, who have not been projected as chief ministerial candidates in their respective states, Shah said in the interview, “They all are fighting elections, and energetically. The leadership issue will be decided later.”
In Madhya Pradesh as well, the current CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has repeatedly said that his “job is to ensure the party’s win and it’s the party’s job to select the CM”.
Explaining the party’s strategy in not projecting a CM face, in an interview to ThePrint last month, former Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said, “Our primary goal is to win the elections…we are well aware of our strategy to achieve victory. Just as in a cricket match, where changing the opening batsman with a number three player is a part of the strategy, (for us) the chief ministerial candidate remains open.”
He added: “The parliamentary board will determine who will serve as the chief minister…It’s a party strategy…In certain environments, you need a collective approach rather than a single leader.”
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‘Will not change style’
While accepting the party’s failure in Karnataka earlier this year, Shah said in the interview, “The BJP narrative did not work in Karnataka…but one setback can’t change our style of working…we don’t junk our playbook because of one defeat…”
He added: “The BJP was known for losing elections. I was the national president when we lost Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan in 2018…did we discard our style because of a setback…decisions are shaped by the options you have, your elbow room shrinks if you don’t have too many.”
Uniform Civil Code
On the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Shah reiterated that “faith-based laws are symbols of discrimination and appeasement”.
“What can be the logic for faith-based laws for different religious communities in a democracy that is governed by the Constitution?” he said in the interview.
Countering the claim that the UCC is a part of the BJP politics to target a particular community, he said: “Uniformity of law was a part of the vision of the framers of the Constitution. The UCC is a part of the mandate laid down under Directive Principles in Article 44 of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has regretted the delay in fulfilling this…”
“Unfortunately, the Congress ignored the task assigned to us by the founding fathers as well as the court’s exhortations because of its greed for votes,” added the home minister.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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