New Delhi: Aged 75, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Jagannath Singh Raghuvanshi has become quite a talking point among the older leaders of the party.
Raghuvanshi was last month declared the BJP candidate from Madhya Pradesh’s Chanderi seat, and this has given hope to party leaders in their early and mid-70s — in both the MP and Rajasthan units — that they are not too old to get tickets for upcoming polls in the two states.
Last year, 76-year-old Yogesh Patel became the BJP’s oldest nominee for the Gujarat elections. He contested and won from his traditional seat of Manjalpur.
Since Narendra Modi and Amit Shah took over the reins of the BJP, there has been an unwritten cut-off age of 75 years for contesting elections or being in the government.
Now, the ticket to Raghuvanshi has come as yet another indication of the party’s willingness to relax the unofficial age ceiling. It’s, however, Prime Minister Modi’s unequivocal message about serving a full third term, if the BJP retains power, that has given hope to the party’s septuagenarians who aren’t ready to hang up their boots just yet.
They have pointed out that the PM, who turned 73 earlier this month, has led the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre for two straight terms and has been announced as leader of the BJP’s campaign for 2024 as well.
Several BJP MLAs in their 70s ThePrint spoke to said that Modi was their “ideal”, being “still physically fit to lead the nation for a third term”. Likewise, the leaders argued, they too were fit to lead their constituency and should not be denied tickets. A few in their 80s expressed the same hope.
One such ticket aspirant is 73-year-old Premshanker Kunjilal Verma, BJP MLA from Seoni-Malwa seat in Madhya Pradesh. Verma is said to have a hold over the Other Backward Class (OBC) voters in his constituency and is thus optimistic that he will be given a ticket again.
“Age is not the criteria, winnability is. Our ideal is PM Modi, who is not only physically fit and touring one country after another, but also working overnight despite completing 73 years. I too am physically fit and all my senses are working. So, I am ready to fight the election,” he asserted. “We all are taking inspiration from the PM and we have to look after only our constituency.”
In Rajasthan, the ticket aspirants include MLAs Kali Charan Saraf, Pabba Ram Bishnoi, both aged 72, and Vasudev Devnani, 73, a state BJP functionary told ThePrint, adding that the leaders believe they are fit to contest elections and have the winnability quotient as well.
It is, however, understood within BJP circles that the age of retirement from the party is 75 years, which means leaders above this age are discouraged from contesting elections.
The party has in previous elections also denied tickets to veterans such as B.S. Yediyurappa, now 80, in Karnataka, and Eknath Khadse, now 71, in Maharashtra.
The senior ticket aspirants’ demands also come at a time when the BJP is said to be looking for fresh faces for elections.
A senior leader from the Rajasthan BJP admitted that the “induction of younger people in the organisation and electoral field is a conscious strategy to make the party outfit younger”. But, he added, “it is also true that the party can’t use the age criteria to retire competent people”.
“It can’t use two yardsticks for giving tickets. If age is not the criteria for the PM because he is winning, the same logic should be applied to deserving senior leaders who are winning. The criteria should not be applied to shunt out such leaders,” the leader further said.
Satyanarayan Jatiya, a 77-year-old Dalit leader from Madhya Pradesh, who was inducted into the BJP’s parliamentary board last year, told ThePrint that the party had no rule barring those above 75 years of age from contesting elections.
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‘I am hopeful’
In MP, there are 16 MLAs above 70 years of age and most are hopeful that they will get a ticket, sources in the BJP state unit said.
MLA Paras Jain, 73, who first got elected from Ujjain in 1990 and has since won all elections barring one from the seat, is one such hopeful.
“The party will decide tickets but I am ready to fight the election. Tickets are given on winnability. If a person aged 50 years is not physically fit, will the party select him? The PM is 73 but he has more energy than young people. I am not going to retire as the party can use experienced people,” he told ThePrint.
State minister and eight-time MLA from Rehli, Gopal Bhargava, now 71, also wishes to fight the next election. Addressing a rally in his constituency recently, he announced: “I will fight the election this time also.”
Six-time MLA Gopilal Jatav, 75, who holds the Guna seat, told ThePrint that he was “sure to get a ticket as the party has given one to Jagganath Singhji from Chanderi who is more senior than me”. He, however, added that this would be his last election.
Nagod MLA Nagendra Singh, 80, is also optimistic about getting a ticket. He said, “The party will decide but I am physically fit and working in my constituency. I am hopeful.”
According to Sitasaran Sharma, the 73-year-old BJP MLA from Narmadapuram who was MP assembly Speaker from 2014 to 2019, state BJP president V.D. Sharma had said that “age will not be criteria for tickets but winnability will be”.
In Rajasthan too, ageing BJP leaders are said to be pressuring the party for another chance in the elections, citing their fitness and winnability.
Earlier this month, six-time BJP MLA Suryakanta Vyas, 85, took on the party brass over poll tickets, reacting to Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat’s statement during the BJP Parivartan Yatra in Nagaur — where he talked about the advanced years of Vyas and former Rajasthan assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal, 89.
“(Hindi author) Munshi Premchand has written in one of his stories that old age is often a repetition of childhood and such mistakes are made in childhood,” the Union minister had reportedly said.
Vyas retorted: “I will fight the election despite what Shekhawat is saying. I have been in politics since even before Shekhawat was born. Even C.P. Joshi and Rajendra Rathore touch my feet. He should learn manners first.”
‘Age rule can be bent for Modiji’
The age controversy started in the BJP in 2019, when the party dropped more than 20 veteran MPs who were above 75 years of age.
L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sumitra Mahajan, Kalraj Mishra, B.S. Koshiyari, B.C. Khanduri, Karia Munda, Shanta Kumar, Hukumdev Narayan Yadav, Satyanarayan Jatia and Satrughan Sinha were told to retire from politics.
Advani had shown displeasure about the way the party communicated its decision to him. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan wrote an open letter announcing her retirement, citing the party’s indecision about her parliamentary seat. Murli Manohar Joshi told voters of Kanpur that he was told by his party to not contest the national election from the constituency and look for a seat elsewhere.
While Ramlal, then BJP organisational general secretary, requested them over phone to announce that they are opting out of the polls, Advani and Joshi did not toe the party diktat. Later, then BJP chief Amit Shah replaced Advani in Gandhinagar seat to contest his first Lok Sabha election.
Back then, Shah had told a news magazine that it was the party’s decision to not give poll tickets to those above 75 years of age. But with Modi now ready for another term, veteran leaders are citing physical fitness and winnability as the main criteria for tickets.
Gaurishankar Bisen, 71, who was last month inducted into the MP cabinet, told ThePrint: “Modiji has defied age. India has never seen a PM like Modi. He is fit and new heights have been achieved under his leadership. The age rule can be bent for him as the country requires his leadership.”
Not just legislators, veteran parliamentarians are also optimistic that the age embargo will be relaxed while deciding tickets.
Some have already started speaking about it. This June, MP Hema Malini, 74, told the media that if she had to contest the next election, she would contest from Mathura and no other seat.
Other prominent MPs who are optimistic about getting tickets include Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Santosh Gangwar, Satyadev Pachauri, Radha Mohan Singh, Sadananda Gowda, Shripad Naik and Kirron Kher, according to BJP sources.
There are also leaders who have volunteered to retire and asked the party to give younger workers a chance to fight elections. MLA Mohan Ram, 72, who got elected from Nagaur in Rajasthan, told ThePrint: “I have communicated to the party to find another candidate for my seat. I am setting a precedent — the party should bring younger people in.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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