LS polls: Is BJP preparing to field Bhupender Yadav from Gurugram?

New Delhi: With just months to go for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, there is speculation that the Bharatiya Janata Party may field Union Minister Bhupender Yadav from the Gurugram constituency.

Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh who currently represents the area in the lower house is likely to be denied a ticket in the forthcoming polls after months of rift with party leadership.

It is understood that the move comes as part of BJP’s plan to field senior ministers and leaders, currently in Rajya Sabha, into electoral contests.

Bhupender Yadav hails from Jamalpur village in Gurugram, which is a Yadav-dominated Lok Sabha seat. This is likely to create trouble in the saffron front as senior leader and Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh currently represents the area in the lower house.

Rao Inderjit Singh had been batting for his daughter, Arti Singh Rao, as a candidate from the constituency as has earlier been reported by Newsdrum.

Rao Inderjit Singh had made the BJP's central leadership aware of the aspirations of his daughter. The former Congress leader, who had joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, had also threatened that Arti Singh Rao would be fielded even if the party denied her a ticket, sources said.

Rao Inderjit Singh has been making these moves in an attempt at projecting and shifting his political legacy to his daughter ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls, sources said.

However, the top leadership of the party has decided not to give in to these threats and has sounded out Bhupender Yadav to prepare for the forthcoming electoral contest.

Rao Inderjit Singh is an important leader from the Ahirwal region of Haryana, dominated by Yadavs. However, by replacing one community leader from another the BJP hopes to manage any anger amongst the community, which is considered to be back the saffron and is part of its wider non-Jat outreach in Haryana.

With about 10 per cent population and a strong hold over land and government jobs, Yadavs are considered to be one of most dominant communities in the state and can have an effect on the electoral outcome in about 25 Assembly constituencies and at least four Lok Sabha constituencies.

Yadavs are one of the castes that have strongly backed the BJP in its consolidation of non-Jat castes over the past decade. The consolidation of non-Jat votes was used by the saffron unit to ride to victory in 2014 and 2019 state legislative Assembly polls.

With Haryana being a key state in BJP’s strategic plan for 2024, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a third term, the party cannot afford to lose a segment of its non-Jat consolidated vote in the region which could adversely affect its seat count, sources added.

While the BJP had secured seven out of the ten Lok Sabha seats in 2014, the state had given all 10 seats to the saffron unit in 2019. Party sources stated that the BJP hopes to repeat its 100 per cent strike rate in Haryana in 2024 as the Narendra Modi government seeks its third term at the Centre.

Currently, the 90-member Haryana Legislative Assembly has BJP 40, Jannayak Janta Party 10 and Congress 31 members. The other seats are held by Indian National Lok Dal and Independents.

The party had secured 49 seats in the 2014 Haryana Assembly polls, forming its first-ever government in the state under Manohar Lal Khattar. However, the BJP had to ally with the JJP in 2019 after its seats fell short of the halfway mark due to rebellion in the saffron unit over the distribution of tickets.

The denial of a ticket to Rao Inderjit Singh can have far-reaching consequences, not just for the Lok Sabha polls but even the Assembly polls in the state which are slated to be held later this year. And the BJP needs to tread cautiously if it wants to capture power in the state for a third time in a row.