The BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) convened a meeting late Thursday night at its Delhi headquarters, with deliberations led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, regarding their first list of candidates running late into the night, suggesting the inclusion of several high-profile leaders in the first list.
The CEC members, including Modi, the party’s national president JP Nadda, and Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, deliberated on potential candidates for States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, and Uttarakhand, among others, to finalise the nominees.
The CEC meeting, which began around 10:30 pm on Thursday, lasted for more than five hours.
Before that, Shah and Nadda had met Modi at his residence to hold consultations, sources said. According to sources, the party may announce a list of 100-120 candidates in its first list. The party is likely to announce its candidates on “weak seats” in Uttar Pradesh before the Election Commission releases dates for the Lok Sabha elections.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will not contest from all 80 seats and will reserve some for its potential allies like Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). In the last poll body meet, 56 UP seats were finalised.
The BJP, according to sources, employed a multi-layered and exhaustive process, encompassing public feedback, internal evaluations, and high-level strategic discussions, to select the candidates poised to represent the party in the upcoming electoral battle.
Sources said the BJP has harnessed technology to solicit feedback from the grassroots level.
Using the Namo App, the public was given a platform to voice their opinions on the performance of incumbent MPs, and in a departure from conventional methods, the BJP sought the opinions of the people on the ground by enquiring about the three most popular leaders in each area.
This bottom-up approach, according to the party, aimed to ensure that the candidates resonated with the sentiments and aspirations of the local population. Over the past two years, the BJP has continually sought feedback from its MPs, evaluating their performance and addressing concerns.
To further enhance the decision-making process, the BJP reached out to survey agencies to compile comprehensive reports on each parliamentary constituency.
They said the first list may have the names of Modi, Shah and Singh from their current seats Varanasi, Gandhinagar and Lucknow respectively besides several Union Ministers, including some who will be contesting Lok Sabha polls after having served in Rajya Sabha.
Scindia’s expected seat in Madhya Pradesh is seen as a sure thing since it is his family citadel.
Union Ministers Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Dharmendra Pradhan and Parshottam Rupala are likely to be fielded in the polls. There is a buzz that Chandrasekhar will be pitted against Shashi Tharoor, the three-term incumbent Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram.
The sources said three of the four BJP MPs-- Union minister G Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Dharmapuri Arvind-- will be contesting from their current constituencies Secunderabad, Karimnanagr and Nizamabad respectively.
A large number of those seats that the BJP has targeted for improving its prospects after unsuccessfully contesting those in 2019 may figure in the initial lists of candidates, following the template of recent Assembly polls, the sources said.
The BJP’s poll candidate lists have often been as significant for those missing out as for the new faces given a chance and all eyes will be on whether it drops some well-known names or does some fresh experiment in selecting its nominees.
