In a reshuffle that the saffron party is also considering in other states, the Uttar Pradesh BJP is mulling denying tickets to nearly one-fourth of its sitting MPs in the state for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Leaders who have crossed the unofficial age limit of 75 or have not been able to develop a connection with the masses and party workers and have been ineffective in their constituencies would be among the people who might be dropped, BJP sources told The Indian Express.

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MPs, including some Union ministers, and mostly belonging to western and eastern UP, could be replaced with leaders currently part of the organisation. It might also include MPs who defeated high-profile Opposition candidates in 2019 but are since seen to have run into controversy and are not very popular with voters.

Apart from this, a few candidates who contested but lost in 2019 may not get tickets. Some of the seats from where the BJP lost were Shrawasti, Ghazipur, Ghosi, Lalganj and Mainpuri.

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A list has reportedly already been prepared and would be shared with the Central leadership when the time comes for candidate selection. A separate list is said to be ready of sitting MLAs as well as ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government who might be considered for Lok Sabha tickets to maintain social balancing, IE reported.

However, a few MPs who are part of the Union Cabinet and may not get Lok Sabha tickets may be given Rajya Sabha seats later, a senior BJP leader suggested.

A number of factors would be considered while selection of new names, such as local social factors and the candidates fielded by Opposition parties.

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To judge the performance of the MPs, the BJP will take into consideration the feedback collected on them, including from booth-level workers, particularly about their participation in party programmes. One major programme in which their participation is being looked at is the Maha Jansampark Abhiyan, underway since June, as part of which BJP leaders have been directed to go to people and talk to them about the Modi government’s schemes.

The final decision will be taken by the central leadership, which will also take into account the findings of survey agencies, reported The Indian Express.

As per the sources, the party does not want to leave anything to chance and hence fresh faces will be fielded to override the anti-incumbency factor and to give new hope to voters.

Uttar Pradesh is a crucial state for any party hoping to win the Lok Sabha elections as it elects 80 MPs — the maximum for a state in the country. In 2019, the BJP won 62 of the 80 seats and its ally Apna Dal (S) another two. Meanwhile, the Congress won only the Rae Bareli seat, from where Sonia Gandhi was contesting, with even Rahul Gandhi losing in Amethi to the BJP’s Smriti Irani.