Modi Holds CEC Meet to Finalise Names for Lok Sabha Polls

The meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was chaired by the party’s national president J.P. Nadda at the party’s headquarters and attended by other CEC members also including union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP Odisha unit chief Manmohan Samal along with organisational secretary Manas Mohanty also attended the meeting when names of candidates for their respective states were discussed.

Among the names from UP, the party will be deciding on seats which are currently represented by its MPs Varun Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, Santosh Gangwar, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Virendra Singh Mast and others. The BJP had released 195 names in its first list on March 2. So far, the party has announced 291 candidates out of which two of them from Gujarat have expressed their inability to contest the coming polls. Ranjanben Bhatt from Vadodara and Bhikhaji Thakor, the party’s candidate for Sabarkantha, announced that they are unwilling to contest the polls from their respective constituencies. While Bhatt is a sitting MP, Thakor is a new name and their candidatures were opposed by the BJP cadre.

Two other candidates, Pawan Singh, who was fielded from Asansol in West Bengal and Upendra Rawat from Barabanki had also expressed their ability to not contest. However, it is not clear whether the party will be fielding other candidates on these two seats.

Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. Counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.