New Delhi: The BJP's central election committee (CEC) met on Sunday evening at the party headquarters in the national capital to finalise the party's candidates for upcoming Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana. The saffron party is likely to announce its candidates for poll-bound states on Monday.
At the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J.P. Nadda were joined by other CEC members as they deliberated with party leaders from Jammu and Kashmir.
For the discussion of party candidates in Jammu and Kashmir, BJP election in-charges Ram Madhav and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy were also present along with other leaders from the Union territory.
Last week, the J&K leaders had held a long meeting with Mr Nadda and Mr Shah, among others, to narrow down the list of probable candidates and strategise for the polls. The 90-member J&K Assembly is going to the polls in three phases on September 18 and 25 and October 1.
The BJP CEC will be holding meetings with Haryana leaders to finalise party candidates for the Assembly polls later. The 90-member Haryana Assembly will go to the polls on October 1 in a single phase. The counting of votes for both J&K and Haryana is scheduled for October 4.
In the last Assembly elections held in 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state, the BJP had won 25 seats. The saffron party is making all-out efforts to fend off the challenge from a resurgent Congress, which has tied up with the National Conference, especially in the Jammu region, a BJP bastion since 2014.
For the Jammu and Kashmir elections, the BJP has appointed RSS leader and former national general secretary of the party, Ram Madhav, along with Mr Reddy, as election in-charges. Both were present in the meeting to finalise candidates for the Union territory.
The BJP is also facing a strong challenge from the Congress in Haryana, where it has been in power since 2014.
