New Delhi, Oct 15 (PTI) The BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) met here on Tuesday evening to finalise the party’s candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly polls next month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J P Nadda and national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh were among the CEC members who deliberated on the probable list of nominees at the party headquarters here.
Union ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the BJP’s in-charge for Jharkhand Annapurna Devi and Sanjay Seth were also present at the meeting, besides the party’s Jharkhand unit chief Babulal Marandi and former Union minister Arjun Munda.
Former Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren, who recently joined the BJP after quitting the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), also participated in the meeting.
The Jharkhand polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20, while the counting of the votes will be taken up on November 23, the Election Commission (EC) announced on Tuesday.
While the BJP is set to contest the election in a coalition with the Janata Dal (United) and All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) Party, it may also consider forging a pre-poll alliance with the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), led by Union minister Chirag Paswan.
In the 2019 Assembly polls, the JMM won 30 of the 81 seats, the Congress 16 and the RJD won one seat. The three parties formed a coalition government with a comfortable majority. The BJP won 25 seats, down from 37 in 2014, while the AJSU Party, contesting alone, ended up winning two seats. PTI PK RC
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