Unlike its ally Janata Dal (United) which is welcoming defectors from other parties in a big way in Bihar, the BJP has said it would not like to do so at the cost of its own committed workers who expect the party to reward them at the time of elections.
Sanjay Jaiswal,president of the Bihar unit of the BJP said that he would not like to comment on the approach of the JD-U, but there was no scope for outsiders in his party ahead of the assembly elections.
“Those who had to join the BJP, they did so last year in November-December. BJP has a strong force of 76-lakh committed workers and the party will work hard to win on all its traditional seats,” he said Friday.
Jaiswal said that there were many within the party who were strong contenders for seats and there was no point looking outside though many leaders were sending feelers. “It is too late now. BJP works with a long-term vision and there is no place for habitual party hoppers who move around at the time of election only in search of seats,” he added.
On the likely talks of seat sharing within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Jaiswal said it would happen at the right time at the right level and there was no point discussing talking about it as if now.
“Last time, the BJP had contested 157 seats and it is quite natural that we will have to compromise with less due to three NDA constituents vying for seats. So, we already have a problem at hand of denying seats to some rightful claimants. In such a situation, there is no point making room for imports,” he added.
Jaiswal’s comments are significant as all the six leaders who have switched over to the JD-U are sitting MLAs and three from powerful political families and it could lead to turf war in the ticklish ticket distribution, more so because JD-U has often claimed to be a bigger claimant on the basis of its share in 2005 and 2010 assembly polls. In 2015, JD-U had left NDA to move over to the Grand Alliance.
Another senior BJP leader said that the experience of the 2015 election, when most of the imported leaders had to bite the dust, and that in neighbouring Jharkhand and Maharashtra more recently warranted that the BJP should trust its own hardworking workers and reward them during elections.
It was the BJP that was the main beneficiary of party hopping in the 2015 assembly election, when the Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and the Congress scuttled ticket prospects for many hopefuls. Many others were accommodated through the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) – Secular of former CM Jitan Ram Manji. Over 20 tickets of the BJP had then gone to leaders defecting from other parties. This included 10 sitting MLAs. However, the debacle of the BJP in the peak of Narendra Modi wave against the combined might of GA was such that it was confined to just 53 seats despite getting highest vote share of 24.4%, compared to 18.4% of the RJD, 16.8% of the JD-U and 6.7% of the Congress, which together came to a whopping 41.9%.
Later, the below par performance was attributed to dissension within the party due to large scale crossovers from other parties.
