BJP Releases First List of Candidates For Punjab, Goa Elections

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@ashish40411)

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Punjab and Goa.

Announcing the list of candidates for the party, senior BJP leader Jai Prakash Nadda announced 17 candidates for the polls in Punjab and 29 candidates for the elections in Goa.

The upcoming Assembly polls in Punjab and Goa will be held in a single phase. Voting for these will take place on 4 February. The BJP is expected to field candidates for most of the 117 and 40 assembly seats respectively in the two crucial states.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/ANI)

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/ANI)

Also Read: 5 States, 690 Seats: All You Need to Know About Elections 2017

BJP’s List for Punjab

BJP on Thursday declared the names of its candidates for 17 seats in Punjab but withheld the announcement for six others where the party has sitting MLAs, indicating that some of them could be dropped.

These six seats include four being represented by ministers in the SAD-BJP government. A couple of them could be dropped as they are over 75 years of age and some others are being seen as more vulnerable in an election where the alliance is weathering 10 years of anti-incumbency.

The BJP will field its sitting MLA Dinesh Singh Babbu from Sujanpur, Seema Kumari from Bhoa (SC), Ashwani Sharma from Pathankot, KD Bhandari from Jalandhar North and Sukhjeet Kaur Sahi from Dasuya.

BJP Announces 29 Names for Goa

Refraining from projecting Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar as its chief ministerial candidate in the Goa Assembly polls, the BJP today announced the names of candidates for 29 seats, including 17 sitting MLAs.

Paresekar figures in the list released by the party following its Central Election Committee's meeting last evening.

The list of 29 MLAs however does not include candidates for the Mayem and Canacona seat, which has seen intense squabbling between the sitting MLAs Anant Shet and Ramesh Tawadkar respectively and rival candidates. While Shet is a Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly, Tawadkar is a sports minister.