(ET)
Many BJP MLAs are said to be apprehensive that PM Modi and party chief Amit Shah may implement their timetested formula of denying tickets to sitting members to beat anti-incumbency. However, some are hopeful that state’s new political matrix may force the high command to avoid antagonising them to check defections.
Modi as Gujarat CM had denied tickets to 47 sitting MLAs in 2007 but the figure came down to around 30 in 2012, ostensibly in the wake of the challenge posed by Keshubhai Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party. In 2002, when Modi led BJP for the first time as CM in an election, 18 of 121 sitting MLAs were dropped.
