BJP Holds Core Group Meetings Of 8 States To Discuss Lok Sabha Candidates

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday convened core committee meetings at the party headquarters to deliberate on potential candidates for various states for the Lok Sabha polls.

The states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Odisha, Sikkim, Maharashtra and Gujarat were discussed in the meeting.

BJP National President JP Nadda chaired the meeting, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party National General Secretary BL Santosh were present in the meeting.

The first state that was discussed was Uttar Pradesh. The meeting was held in the presence of Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, both Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak and BJP Uttar Pradesh president Bhupendra Chaudhary.

As per sources, 25 Lok Sabha seats were discussed in the Uttar Pradesh BJP core group meeting. Sources suggest that National Democratic Alliance partner Apna Dal may get two seats to contest, one from Mirzapur and the other from Sonbhadra.

While Ghaziabad MP General VK Singh might be fielded again from his constituency in the elections, the BJP may drop its Barabanki seat candidate.

In the second phase, the core group meeting was held to strategize on the election in Haryana at the party headquarters. Newly appointed Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini and former Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar were present at the meeting.

In the third phase, the meeting was held at the party office to strategize on the polls in Rajasthan. Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, State President CP Joshi, in-charge Arun Singh, and co-in-charge Vijaya Rahatkar were present in the meeting.

As per sources, the discussion took place to decide on candidates for the remaining 10 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan. The core group is slated to prepare the final panel on Monday and the BJP Central Election Committee will approve the list in the next one or two days. In the fourth phase, the core group meeting focused on West Bengal.

West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar, Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari and Amitabh Chakraborty were present in the meeting. The meeting took place to discuss candidates for the remaining 23 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Core committee meetings were also held for Sikkim, Odisha, and Maharashtra, respectively, with Odisha BJP president Man Mohan Samal and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan leading discussions for Odisha.

In addition to this, BJP MP Joel Oram, Sambit Patra, Baijayant Panda, Sunil Banshal, Lata Usendi, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Manas Mohanty were present at the meeting.

The core committee meeting will be held on Tuesday again to deliberate extensively on Odisha.

"In today's meeting, the election management was discussed. There will be another detailed meeting tomorrow. Today, other states were discussed. There will be a broad discussion on Odisha tomorrow," Samal said after the meeting.

As per sources, the central election meeting will be held on Wednesday. Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal said that the picture will be clear after two days.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray reached Delhi late at night on Monday and is expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah soon. As per sources, Raj Thackeray may join the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP Mahayuti alliance. According to sources, the MNS chief may be alloted two Lok Sabha seats.

Raj Thackeray said,"I don't know what my schedule is yet. I was just told to come to Delhi. Let's see." 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)