New Delhi: With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections just a year away, several senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are fishing for a seat to contest and trying to gauge the mood of the voters.
Three such leaders who are expected to be in the fray are Rajya Sabha MP – External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who is targeting one of the Lok Sabha seats in Bangalore, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is eyeing Odisha’s Dhenkanal constituency, and GVL Narasimha Rao, who is expected to contest the Vizag seat.
Jaishankar, a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, has recently started speaking more on politics and has attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. last month For his comments on China.
Jaishankar had said, ‘I am disturbed as a citizen of India, when I see someone crying about China and dismissive about India.’ He said, ‘You know what word comes to his (Rahul’s) mind when he talks about China, ‘harmony’. His one word description of China is harmony; His one word description of India is discord.
At the same time, Jaishankar has started spending more time in Karnataka, visiting Udupi and Belagavi, and especially the capital Bangalore.
On March 26, he attended a meet-and-greet event at the city’s popular Cubbon Park and interacted with youths and daily walkers along with BJP’s Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and Bangalore Central MP PC Mohan.
He also participated in a program of BJP Yuva Morcha on 24 March, where, Comment On the ‘World Happiness Index’ he said: “Should tell you all to come to Bangalore which is the happiest place in the world, especially on a Friday night.”
A BJP functionary from Karnataka told ThePrint: “He (Jaishankar) is a Tamil Brahmin and did his schooling in Bangalore; That’s why he has an old connection with the city. He is testing the waters to contest the Lok Sabha elections.”
Bengaluru Central is held by Mohan, Bengaluru South by Surya, Bengaluru North by BJP’s Sadananda Gowda and Congress’s Bengaluru Rural. Jaishankar can contest from any of the three seats of BJP. Being an educated voter, he will have no problem in winning. However, all the decisions will be taken at the last moment. What he can do now is to introduce himself to the local voters,” said the executive.
Jaishankar has, in fact, been visiting Karnataka since 2022, participating in cultural and intellectual events and even taking a food tour to Bangalore in August. In April, he visited Belagavi and Dharwad to participate in events, while in August last year, he promised to take up the issue of opening a consulate in the city with the US.
Read also: BJP is making its roadmap for 2024, even 2029. Opposition still stuck in 2018
Dharmendra Pradhan
Pradhan, a prominent politician from Odisha and a resident of Talcher town in Angul district of the state, has been spending a lot of time in the Dhenkanal Lok Sabha constituency.
The Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh recently visited there in February for the Lok Sabha along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah migration program – an exercise that was done in the state last year as well.
Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnav, Mansukh Mandaviya and Prahlad Joshi have also accompanied Pradhan in recent months to visit the constituency – which is currently held by the state’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
Pradhan himself has confirmed that he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Odisha. PTI Report.
The minister won his first Lok Sabha election in 2004 from Deogarh in Odisha, which now comes under the Sambalpur constituency (after delimitation), which is currently held by the BJP and has a strong support base.
According to BJP insiders, the party is preparing to field Pradhan from either Sambalpur or Dhenkanal and Pradhan’s recent activities show that he is sensing the public mood.
Leader of the Opposition in Odisha, Jainarayan Mishra told ThePrint, “Pradhan is a senior BJP leader and has shown interest in contesting the elections. The party will decide at the right time.
Odisha BJP vice-president Nouri Nayak said, “Pradhan is preparing to contest from Dhenkanal, but party people are asking him to contest from Sambalpur as it is a safe seat. The BJP has three MLAs from there and There are also sitting MPs.
Pradhan’s wife Mridula has also been visiting panchayats in Angul and Dhenkanal, and doing social service like organizing health camps and participating in programs of the women’s wing.
Earlier this year, Pradhan had urged the Center for a special package for development of tourism infrastructure in Dhenkanal and Sambalpur.
With an eye on the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD last month deployed Pranab Prakash Das – believed to be Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s number two – as observer for Dhenkanal, Angul, Sambalpur and Keonjhar districts.
According to a BJP leader, “The appointment of Das as an observer by the BJD is a clear indication of probing the Pradhan in these districts. Das is a three-time MLA (Jajpur) and is known to have good organizational abilities.
GVL Narasimha Rao
Another hot seat of the Lok Sabha is Vizag in Andhra Pradesh from where two BJP leaders are preparing the ground for next year’s elections.
One is party general secretary Daggubati Purandeshwari, who won the seat in 2009 as a Congress candidate and became a minister in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. After joining the BJP, he unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Rajampet. She again contested from Vizag in 2019 general election but lost badly.
The other leader eyeing Vizag is GVL Narasimha Rao, who hails from Narasaraopet in Andhra and whose Rajya Sabha term will end before 2024. Rao represents Uttar Pradesh in the Upper House of the Parliament.
He confirmed to ThePrint that he was “preparing to contest from Vizag” but added that “ultimately the party will decide who will contest from this seat”.
Rao has been visiting the constituency to participate in local organizational activities. He has also been active in Parliament, asking questions about the city’s metro rail project. In February, he asked the steel ministry how the Vizag steel plant would deal with mass retirements of employees, while in the winter session of Parliament last December, he sought timely completion of the 400-bed ESI hospital in the city. He has also proposed that Vizag can be developed as a major IT destination.
(Editing by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Read also: The Modi-Shah leadership is set to face its toughest test yet in the coming assembly elections