The Bharatiya Janata Party’s central election committee met on Wednesday evening in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda, union home minister Amit Shah, members of the CEC, and state leaders, from Rajasthan and Telangana.
Rajasthan
In the meeting for Rajasthan that lasted around 90 minutes, discussions took place on all the 76 remaining seats for which the party is yet to announce candidates. Top sources informed News18 that of these 76 seats, the party has finalised nominees for close to 70. The remaining will be finalised after internal discussions and no more CEC meetings will be required, they added.
Earlier on Tuesday, the BJP’s core committee meeting took place at the residence of Nadda and went on till early in the morning.
Another important development regarding Rajasthan where the saffron party has fielded 7 Members of Parliament, including Diya Kumari, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Baba Balaknath, and others, is that no more MPs are likely to be fielded for next month’s assembly polls. This news has emerged even as speculation has been rife that the saffron party would field union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and minister of state for agriculture Kailash Choudhary in the state polls.
The saffron party so far has announced candidates for 124 seats in the 200-member assembly in the two lists released. The third list of candidates is likely to be released by the BJP within the next 24 to 48 hours. Rajasthan will have election in a single phase on November 25 for which the final date for filing nominations is November 6. In the lists announced so far, the saffron party has given tickets to former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore, apart from others.
Telangana
The battle for Telangana is a special one for the BJP which is desperately trying to find its foothold in southern India. After the recent debacle in Karnataka, the party doesn’t have a government in any state down south.
Out of the 119 assembly seats, the BJP has announced candidates for 53. Sources say that in the meeting on Wednesday, the party held a discussion for all the remaining seats. Barring 10 to 15 constituencies, the party is expected to announce candidates for the remaining seats in the next few days.
The BJP is also likely to soon make public its alliance in the state with Pawan Kalyan‘s Jana Sena. Kalyan last week had met BJP leader Amit Shah and a discussion was held on the alliance in the state with a tie-up already in Andhra Pradesh. With the official alliance announcement and seat-sharing declarations yet to be made, it is likely that Pawan Kalyan’s party will get around 8 to 10 seats in the Telangana assembly from the BJP’s quota.
Among the candidates announced by the BJP in Telangana so far, the party has fielded Raja Singh, who was earlier suspended but the decision has been revoked. Among other leaders to get tickets are former state unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Lok Sabha member Arvind Dharmapuri. Union minister Kishan Reddy, who recently was made the state president for Telangana, will not be contesting the upcoming state polls. In fact, sources say that DK Aruna, whose name was doing the rounds, is also unlikely to contest the state elections.
Telangana is among the last of the five states going to polls, where voting will happen on November 30.
A lot is at stake for the saffron party in next month’s state elections. While the BJP is in power in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress is at the helm of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. There is a tricornered fight in Telangana between the BJP, Congress, and Bharat Rashtra Samithi. The Telangana government currently is led by the BRS. The BJP is also contesting on several seats in the north-eastern state of Mizoram, which is ruled by the National Democratic Alliance.
The results of the five state elections will be announced on December 3. This battle for states is being seen as a precursor to the big finale of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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