BJP's CEC meets to pick Bihar candidates

The BJP’s key Central Election Committee is holding a meeting on Saturday to discuss the list of candidates for the second and third phase of the Bihar Assembly elections. This is the second CEC meeting of the BJP over the ensuing polls.

New Delhi: The meeting of Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is underway to discuss the list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly Election in Bihar. The meeting is taking place at the party headquarters and is attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national president JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and other members of the election committee.

This is the second meet of BJP's CEC and speculations are rife that the saffron party will release the third list of its candidates.

Notably, the BJP had earlier this week formally inducted the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and assigned the party 11 seats as part of seat distribution among allies for the Bihar polls.

The party, which is considered to have influence among extremely backward classes (EBCs) in the state, is seen as a replacement for Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) which recently left the NDA in the state.

Janata Dal-United (JDU), on the other hand, had earlier this week released a list of 115 candidates for the Bihar Assembly polls. Interestingly, the party has denied tickets to 11 of its sitting MLAs while accommodating the turncoats.

READ: Top Congress Party leaders to campaign in Bihar

The BJP and the JDU had agreed to contest on 121-122 seats respectively in the 243-member assembly. JD-U, which has a share of 122 seats according to the understanding, has given seats to Hindustani Awaam Morcha of Jitin Ram Manjhi from its quota.

Elections in the state will be held in three phases beginning from October 28 and the results will be declared on November 10.

Meanwhile, death of Union Minister and LJP founder Ram Vilas Paswan has added a new twist to the state elections. Political experts have predicted that Chirag Paswan, son of senior Paswan, will be able to consolidate Dalit and sympathy votes following his father's demise.

With ANI inputs