BJP edging out veterans

In a major political development, three sitting MPs in Assam were dropped from BJP's first list of candidates for the coming general elections.

Bijaya Chakraborty – who represented the Guwahati seat thrice since 1999, was replaced by Queen Ojha.

Mangaldoi MP Ramen Deka, Jorhat MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa were replaced by Dilip Saikia and Tapan Gogoi, respectively.

It seems that the party may have decided to ease out several of its veteran leaders from politics after keeping them out of government by introducing an age bar of 75 years.

The BJP also dropped senior leader Lal Krishna Advani from the first list of candidates as the BJP central election committee has decided to field its national President Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, where the veteran BJP leader Advani won six times in the past.

Like Advani, several sitting parliamentarians were likely to be dropped in order to bring in new faces and eliminate the anti incumbency factor.

Murli Manohar Joshi, who had won from Kanpur in 2014, remains uncertain as the party did not announce its candidate from the seat in the first list which was released on Thursday.