india

Updated: Feb 16, 2019 23:19 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) details of projects undertaken by its MPs in the last five years, in what appears to be a review of sorts before tickets are allotted for the summer general elections.

A senior BJP leader familiar with developments said party MPs had undertaken several development projects over five years and published various booklets and pamphlets to publicize their work.

“The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has sought five copies of such documents from each MP,” the leader said, not wishing to be named.

“We have written to the MPs asking them to share these by February 20, so that they can be forwarded to the PMO.”

The PMO periodically reviews the performance of BJP MPs, and feedback received from sources within and outside the party matters in deciding who gets tickets and who doesn’t, a second BJP leader said, requesting not to be identified.

“In every interaction with MPs over the last five years, Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly insisted that they be active in their constituencies and take government programmes to the people,” the second leader said.

Modi meets BJP MPs in groups during practically every session of Parliament to discuss and get feedback on important issues. At the recent BJP national council meeting in Delhi, he asked party leaders not to simply depend on the “Modi factor” to win the Lok Sabha elections but individually connect with the masses.

BJP national president Amit Shah’s strategy for winning the 2019 elections banks on the premise that those who have benefited from government schemes will vote for Modi.

“The idea behind the exercise undertaken by the PMO is also to find out how active the parliamentarians were in the last five years and whether they were in constant touch with their constituents,” the first leader said.

Experts see a pattern in such an exercise. As chief minister of Gujarat, Modi used to depend on feedback from different sources to decide whether a sitting legislator stood a chance to be re-elected, said Sanjeev Tiwari, associate professor of political science at Delhi University.

“As a result, a large number of legislators who were unpopular were denied tickets to cut the personal anti-incumbency they faced. It was a successful experiment,” Tiwari said.

“The BJP seems to be taking a similar course for the national elections.”