The BJP is set to exercise extreme caution regarding ticket distribution for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Despite the BJP being in power in the state, the administration did not cooperate, and disgruntled party workers stayed away from the campaign. Voter apathy was another major factor that led to a decline in voter turnout. The new state president, Pankaj Chaudhary, toured the state to resolve the grievances of party workers and tried to ensure representation for all sections while forming his team. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been continuously touring various administrative divisions, maintaining regular contact with MLAs and party workers. Organization General Secretary BL Santosh has issued several directives to the organisation with the party workers’ concerns in mind.
For instance, Sanjeev Balyan lost by 24,672 votes in Muzaffarnagar, where the voter turnout had dropped by 9.07 per cent.
Even Rakesh Pandey, an MP who had switched from the BSP to the BJP, lost the election. Internally, however, the party acknowledges that overconfidence and internal rifts among top leaders led to its downfall. In a surprising move, the BJP had renominated most of its sitting MPs.
The BJP had to pay a heavy price in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections due to infighting among top leaders over ticket distribution. it managed to secure only 36 seats in 2024 While the party had won 62 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2019. Its vote share dropped from 49.6 per cent to 41.4 per cent. Officially, the BJP attributes this defeat to the opposition’s aggressive campaign, which claimed that if the BJP won 400 seats, it would alter the Constitution and abolish reservation. Of its first list of 51 candidates, 46 were sitting MPs. In total, the party gave tickets again to 49 MPs for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, failing to account for anti-incumbency. Of the candidates fielded in 2019, 54 were given tickets again in 2024; 31 of them lost the election. Among the 49 MPs renominated by the party, 27 were defeated. Thirty-three MPs had been given tickets for a third term or beyond; of these, 20 lost.
Tickets will be allocated on the basis of a consensus among the top leadership, according to party leaders.
