PM Modi chairs midnight meet to finalise BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates

PM Modi chairs midnight meet to finalise BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates

With the Lok Sabha polls round the corner, the BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) met on Thursday night at its headquarters in Delhi with discussions, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, regarding their first list of candidates running late into the night.

The meeting, which began around 10:30 pm on Thursday, lasted for more than four hours, according to news agency PTI.

BJP president J P Nadda and Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh were among those who attended the meeting. This comes at a time when all parties are gearing up for the announcement of the Lok Sabha election dates.

The elections are expected to be held in April-May. Leaders from 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 for the meeting.

Party insiders said the first list of candidates — which could include around 160 names — was likely to be announced this week either before, or on, the weekend.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari were also present.

A large number of those seats that the BJP has targeted for improving its prospects after unsuccessfully contesting those in 2019 may figure in the initial lists of candidates, following the template of recent Assembly polls, sources were quoted as saying by PTI.

The state units of the saffron party have already started sending in their candidates’ suggestions to the central leadership.

The meeting comes days after the BJP stunned Opposition parties in the recently held Rajya Sabha elections, winning 10 of the 15 seats in UP, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. The Congress managed three and the SP two. As such, the BJP has pushed its way to within touching distance of a majority in the Upper House.

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