BJP expected to finalise nominees for up to 3rd of Lok Sabha seats today
The first list of the BJP candidates, including for around 130 seats the party has never won, was likely to be released on Friday
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was expected to finalise the nominees for up to a third of the Lok Sabha seats at a meeting of its Central Election Committee (CEC) in New Delhi on Thursday. The first list of the BJP candidates, including for around 130 seats the party has never won, was likely to be released on Friday, days before the national election schedule is to be announced.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the CEC meeting. Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa are among those scheduled to attend it.
People aware of the matter said many seats from the South were likely to figure on the first list. They added that an early announcement of the candidates would ensure the nominees get about 50 days to campaign. The people said a similar strategy worked for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, where it announced 39 candidates for what were considered the toughest seats over three months before the polls last year.
The first list of BJP Lok Sabha candidates was expected to be released amid speculation about whether some Union ministers, who are members of Rajya Sabha, would fight the Lok Sabha polls. Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar refused to comment after their ministerial colleague Pralhad Joshi was construed to have suggested they could be among the candidates.
Joshi later clarified that anybody can contest and that he had not taken specific names. “It is a national party and the leadership will decide.’’
The speculation about Union minister Piyush Goyal’s candidature was set off after the World Trade Organisation chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters in Abu Dhabi that Goyal could not be there because he was “politically engaged since he is running for a seat himself.’’ Goyal’s office later said the party and not individuals take such decisions.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan was expected to fight from Sambalpur or Dhenkanal in Odisha and his colleague Bhupendra Yadav from Haryana.
The BJP has renominated only the party chief JP Nadda, Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, L Murugan, and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi for Rajya Sabha, implementing the rule that no member will be given more than two terms to encourage new talent. There is also a view that leaders who have won Lok Sabha seats from easy seats for three terms should be changed.
