BJP struggles to get ‘winnable’ candidates for Lok Sabha polls in Telangana

Hyderabad: The BJP which has set its eyes on winning a majority of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the State in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections, is now facing an uphill task in finding candidates who have more wining chances in over half of the Lok Sabha constituencies.

Party sources say the party is in a dilemma over finding strong candidates in Peddapalli, Warangal, Mahabubabad, Khammam, Nalgonda and Medak constituencies. The party had hoped of some strong candidates from rival opposition parties to join the BJP, but so far not a single leader has approached them.

Sources attribute the delay in declaring the first list of candidates to this issue. The party had hoped to announce the first list by January end. Ultimately, the announcement about the first list has been kept postponed and now the list is likely to be announce in the first week of March.

The party leadership appeared to have clarity on three sitting seats – Secunderabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar, but in respect of other 14 seats the party is unable to decide. Though BJP State President G Kishan Reddy has sent a list of candidates for a few seats, it is learnt that union Home Minister Amit Shah put the names on hold and the party is reportedly conducting fresh surveys to select candidates.

During the assembly elections too, the party tried to attract leaders from opposition parties, but failed to do so. In fact, many senior leaders, who joined the BJP deserting the rival parties, left the party before the polls causing a lot of embarrassment to the party.

Based on its 14 per cent vote share in the assembly polls, the BJP high command has set the State unit a target of 10 Lok Sabha seats, but now it looks like they may not be able to achieve the target if the present aspirants are allotted the tickets. The State leadership is pinning hopes on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma and construction of Lord Rama Temple in Ayodhya to win the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in the State.

Even during the ongoing Vijay Sankalp Yatra, the BJP leaders are only promoting Modi government’s achievements during the last ten years and how BJP played a vital role in the construction of Ram Temple. There is hardly any mention of who the candidates would be or State BJP’s achievements.