PM Modi Presides Over Late-Night Meeting to Select Candidates for Lok Sabha Elections; BJP May Announce List Prior to Election Dates

In order to make a decision on the first list of candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting on Thursday night in the nation’s capital.

The meeting took place at the party headquarters and started at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Thursday. It lasted for almost four hours. Prominent figures in the political arena were present at the meeting, including the National President of the party, JP Nadda; Union Home Minister, Amit Shah; Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh; Organization General Secretary, BL Santosh; Chief Ministers; State Presidents; and In-charges, Co-Incharges, and Election In-charges of different states.

The leaders sealed around 155 Lok Sabha seats after deliberating on seats in about 17 states; the list of sealed seats will be made public in the next 24 hours.

The Election Commission is expected to disclose dates for the Lok Sabha elections, which are anticipated to take place in April or May, before the BJP announces its candidates for “weak seats” in Uttar Pradesh, according to a story published in India Today.

Attending the conference were the chief ministers of Goa, Uttarakhand, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

Discussions over the names of candidates for each of Madhya Pradesh’s 29 seats took place in the presence of BJP State President VD Sharma, BJP leader Prahlad Patel, and former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

According to sources, the names of four to five Telangana aspirants may be revealed shortly.

The three sitting MPs, Arvind Dharmapuri, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and G Kishan Reddy, can perhaps get tickets once again.

The names of the candidates for the meeting were discussed with Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Leaders of the BJP from Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand were also consulted over the candidate names.

All of the Assamese politicians who were nominated for Lok Sabha seats were considered at the meeting, according to BJP sources.

State Minister Rameshwar Teli may be sent to the Rajya Sabha, while Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal may run from Dibrugarh among the eleven seats that the BJP will vie for.

Candidates for the Jammu seats were also discussed; discussions on Kashmir will happen at the next meeting.

There have also been talks about two or three seats in Delhi, but there will be further meetings. One Goan seat has finalized candidates, while one seat is still up for grabs.

“Crossing 400” is the campaign slogan that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen for this year’s Lok Sabha elections. The goal of the BJP is to get over 370 seats by itself.