The BJP Central Election Committee late on Saturday, 16 March, held a meeting to finalise names of candidates for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah.
The meeting focused particularly on constituencies where polling will be held in the first phase, PTI reported. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will go to polls in the first phase on 11 April.
Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Kiren Rijiju also attended the meeting.
State of Bihar, Uttarakhand, Assam, Arunachal, Manipur, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir figured in the deliberations, ANI reported quoting sources.
“In all these states seats have been left vacant in places where the BJP is not very strong to facilitate candidates from regional parties or other big party leaders who would support the party,” sources said.
No Discussion on Uttar Pradesh
According to ANI’s report, the meeting did not discuss Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 parliamentary seats and where the BJP is still in talks with smaller parties to finalise seat sharing.
Amit Shah is likely to meet with the core committee of the party on Sunday again after which the BJP is expected to announce its first list of candidates, sources said.
The party’s Central Election Committee is likely to meet again on Monday, 18 March and by Friday it may announce the list of all candidates.
The Lok Sabha elections will begin on 11 April and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on 23 May.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
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