The BJP, including state incharges and their deputies for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, will be huddled in Delhi on Saturday as the national capital wakes up to another weekend. The saffron party, it seems, is ready to announce its first comprehensive list of candidates in the first week of March.
This all-important meeting will begin at 10 am and will also be attended by national party president JP Nadda, along with union home minister Amit Shah.
Sources said unlike the assembly polls, there is little chance of a number of smaller lists. Instead, the BJP is gearing up for a longer first list, which may be announced in the first week of March. Another source said the list may very well contain “hundreds of names”.
During its mega huddle, the party will discuss strategies that will be common practice in all states and union territories along with details of poll rallies by top guns – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah and Nadda.
The BJP leaders are also expected to discuss constituencies where a shortlist of probable names is yet to be drawn up. For example, there is opposition from the Uttar Pradesh unit for the renomination of Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit and Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.
The party wants to bring in younger faces in Bareilly and Mathura, where the incumbents Santosh Gangwar and Hema Malini have been such heavyweights that a discussion on their substitutes has been postponed so far. Each state has such constituencies, which were put aside for discussion at a later stage.
Now, it remains to be seen if, on Saturday, names for these seats will be discussed or set aside once again for the central election committee to take a call on. For that meeting, whenever it is, the prime minister will also be present.
In the last week of January, the BJP had appointed election incharges and co-incharges for 23 states and UTs, including big states like UP, Bihar and West Bengal. In a major assignment, Jay Panda was appointed the election boss of UP, which is the state that brings 80 seats. In Bihar, where the BJP hatched a coup by forming a government with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), national general secretary Vinod Tawde is incharge while Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash will be co-incharge. Bihar sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
The BJP will go to campaign on two major themes – Hindutva and development. While the newly inaugurated Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir will prominently feature in rallies, campaign songs and speeches, the party will also underscore government schemes like piped water, free housing for the poor, free ration, mediclaim through Ayushman Bharat among others.
Comments
0 comment