Revolt in Uttar Pradesh BJP as sitting MPs denied ticket threaten to walk away

• Sitting BJP MP Priyanka Singh Rawat from Barabanki cried bitterly in front of her supporters on Thursday evening after she was denied ticket. “What was my fault. At least senior leaders should have taken me into confidence, ” she said in a meeting held where party workers staged a protest.
• In Ballia where Bharat Singh has been replaced with Virendra Singh Mast. Supporters of Singh staged protests and burned effigies of Amit Shah and Mast.  “We will ensure Mast loses this poll if Bharat bhaiya is not given ticket,” the supporters warned.
• Babulal Chaudhary is another sitting MP who has been replaced in Fatehpur Sikri. “If I was a suitable candidate in 2014, what happened that party leadership no longer finds me suitable for 2019,” he asked.
• Anshul Verma, the sitting MP from Hardoi, resigned and gave his resignation letter to the Chowkidar at BJP state headquarters, before he joined the Samajwadi Party.
• Union Minister Krishna Raj, who also lost favour with Modi and Shah this time blames a UP minister from Shahjahanpur for denying her a ticket in this election.
• Senior BJP leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, sitting MP from Kanpur, told his supporters a day before the list was announced that the party had asked him not to contest in the election.

Resentment is brewing among the BJP leaders over ticket distribution as allegations of nepotism and ‘money changing hands’ is flowing thick and fast, dealing the BJP’s prospects of doing well in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections a massive blow.

“Can you ever think of what the BJP will do if dedicated leaders and workers are sidelined? Serious leaders are dropped and denied ticket because they are not able to supply thaila (purse) to the people who make a difference in the party hierarchy,” Anshul Verma said in Lucknow.

Tempers ran high, around 300 kms south-east of Lucknow, in Ballia where supporters of Bharat Singh raised anti-party slogans. They burnt the effigies of the party’s national president Amit Shah. Singh wrote a letter to the party state president Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey saying that he is a dedicated chowkidar of the party who had carried out development schemes of the government in letter and in spirit.

“At least tell me why ticket was denied to me,” he wrote in that letter.

Many of the senior leaders are mulling over the possibility of switching sides. “We are political leaders. If we are denied ticket despite doing exemplary work we will be left with no option but to join some other party,” Priyanka Rawat said.

BJP has so far announced 61 candidates from Uttar Pradesh replacing 13 sitting MPs with new faces. The leaders who have been denied a party ticket include Dr Murli Manohar Joshi (Kanpur), Savitribai Phule (Bahraich), Rajesh Pandey (Kushinagar), Bharat Singh (Ballia), Anshul Verma (Hardoi), Priyanka Rawat (Barabanki), Chaudhry Babu Lal (Fatehpur Sikri) and Rama Shankar Katheria (Agra).

It is yet to announce candidate from Rae Bareli but Ajay Agarwal, who had contested in the last election unsuccessfully against Sonia Gandhi has written a letter to the party leadership saying if he is denied ticket it would be detrimental for the party.