New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) convened its central election committee (CEC) meeting at the party headquarters in the national capital on Thursday night to finalise the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April-May. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the meeting which was attended by BJP national president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other party leaders.
Discussions were held on the seats of f Lok Sabha across about 17 states and set seals on more than 155 seats, the list of which will be released in a day or two.
Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh, Chief Ministers, State Presidents, In-charges, Co-Incharges, and Election In-charges of various states were also present in this meeting.
The Chief Ministers of various states including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gujarat's Bhupendra Patel, Madhya Pradesh's Mohan Yadav, Chhattisgarh's Vishnu Deo Sai, Uttarakhand's Pushkar Singh Dhami and Goa's Pramod Sawant, were among those who arrived at the BJP headquarters for the meeting.
Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP leader Prahlad Patel, and BJP's State President VD Sharma were also present in the meeting, where discussions were held regarding the names of candidates for all 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh.
Sources indicated that the announcement of the names of 4-5 candidates from Telangana could be made soon. Three current MPs G Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Arvind Dharmapuri may also get tickets again. Discussions were held with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath regarding the names of candidates in the meeting.
Discussions were also held on the names of candidates with BJP leaders from Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand. BJP sources said that the names of candidates from Assam were discussed in the meeting, in which all Lok Sabha seats were filled with leaders from Assam.
BJP will contest on eleven seats there, and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal could contest from Dibrugarh, while State Minister Rameshwar Teli could be sent to the Rajya Sabha. Discussions were also conducted on candidates for the seats in Jammu, while deliberations for Kashmir will take place in the next meeting.
Additionally, discussions were held on two to three seats in Delhi, but another round of meetings will happen. Candidates have been finalised for one seat in Goa, while one seat is yet to be decided. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a slogan of 'Crossing 400' in this year's Lok Sabha elections. The BJP aims to win more than 370 seats on its own.
