What ticket for Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi seat says about Modi’s Mission 2024

Among the most unexpected entrants in the BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha nominees was Bansuri Swaraj, the 40-year-old daughter of Sushma Swaraj, for whom the late BJP leader was known to leave meetings at times, to rush to be at the bus stop when she came back from school.

The choice of Bansuri has taken many by surprise, including those in the BJP, not just because she is a virtual newcomer to politics, but also because the BJP top brass has picked a newbie for the high-profile New Delhi seat. This, despite Sushma being a protege of L K Advani, who had opposed Narendra Modi’s projection as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2014.

It is clear that the BJP leadership was unhappy with Meenakshi Lekhi, who was seen to have lost ground in New Delhi after winning the seat twice comprehensively, in 2014 and 2019. Given that women will be a decisive vote in 2024, wooed by every party – with Modi going out of his way to underline “Nari Shakti” – the BJP appears to have been careful to pick a fellow woman leader to replace Lekhi in the prestigious seat.

In Delhi, the BJP has ditched 4 out of the 5 sitting BJP MPs in the seats for which tickets have been announced so far, with 2 names still pending (it had won all the 7 seats in 2019). The BJP appears to be plugging any loopholes given that the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are contesting together in Delhi and, on paper, make a formidable coalition.

With Bansuri’s nomination, the BJP appears to have set the tone for the polls in the Capital. If she manages to defeat the AAP’s Somnath Bharti, who is himself a strong contender from the seat, she will establish herself as a giant killer; with the victory to be construed additionally as a rap for AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who is