Gujarat confidential: Wisest Of The Lot

The reason for this is that election debates concern the party and not the individual leader and BJP thinks it should choose the wisest of the lot to speak on its behalf.”

Previous Party

At a time when the Opposition is equating its MLAs defecting to the BJP to a ‘Bharti Mela’ (employment fair), the BJP’s list containing details of its Lok Sabha candidates included a column with the head – ‘previous party’ the candidate belonged to. In the run-up to the polls, the BJP has been proactive in sharing details of its candidates, within minutes of declaring their candidature.

Along with personal details and contact, the information shared included the caste, sub-caste, education, occupation and also details of elections contested and previous positions held. Standing out was the column — “if previously belonged to another party, name the party”. But so far, none of the candidates fielded by the BJP is from among those who had in the recent past defected to the party from other parties.