In Raigarh (ST) seat took, BJP chose to bank upon a second line leader Gomti Sai and dumped the two-time MP and Union minister Vishnudev Sai.

Bhopal: In a significant departure to its conventional poll strategy, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dumped an established political dynasty in Bastar (ST) Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh and banked on a second line leader of the region to retain the seat in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

The party, in fact, seemed to have relied on second-line leaders, instead of big names, in all the five LS constituencies in Chhattisgarh, the candidates for which were declared on Thursday.

In Bastar (ST) parliamentary constituency, the party dropped sitting MP Dinesh Kashyap, whose family had held the seat since 1998, and declared two-time MLA Baidyuram Kashyap, as the party candidate in the seat in the upcoming polls.

While the sitting MP had represented Bastar Lok Sabha seat in 2011 (by-election) and 2014 parliamentary elections, his father late Baliram Kashyap had been elected from the seat four times since 1998.

Congress had fielded many established political families such as  Manturam Sodi, Arvind Netam, Mahendra Karma and Kawasi Lakhma to wrest the seat from BJP, but the Kashyap dynasty had made Bastar an impregnable fortress for the saffron party in the last 21 years.

“It is indeed a radical move by BJP to look beyond the Kashyap dynasty to retain the seat,” a veteran scribe of Bastar, Naresh Mishra, observed.

The BJP candidate Baidyuram was considered a second-line leader of the party in Bastar.

In Raigarh (ST) seat took, BJP chose to bank upon a second line leader Gomti Sai and dumped the two-time MP and Union minister Vishnudev Sai.

In Kanker (ST) seat under Bastar division, BJP opted for folk singer and preacher Mohan Mandavi instead of retaining Chhattisgarh BJP president Vikram Usendi in the seat.

In Sarguja (ST) seat, BJP chose firebrand woman saffron leader and two-time MLA Renuka Singh to retain the seat for the party. The BJP has dropped the sitting MP Kamal Bhan Singh in the constituency.

In Janjgir-Champa (SC) seat, the party also chose a second line leader and former MP Guharam Ajgale instead of re-nominating sitting MP Kamla Devi Patle in the seat.

The decision to promote second-line leaders in the party comes in the wakeof the BJP facing a rout in the last year’s Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh.