BJP meet on Wednesday to finalise candidates for Assembly polls

New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS) The BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) will meet on Wednesday to finalise candidates for Goa, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

Shortlisted names of the candidates recommended to the CEC have been already discussed by the top leadership with the state units.

Sources said that the meeting will be held on January 19 and names for Goa, and Uttarakhand are to be approved. "Names for a few more phases of Uttar Pradesh will be approved by the CEC," sources said.

On Monday, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh BJP leaders discussed the shortlisted names with the Central leadership before the CEC. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior leaders from Uttar Pradesh discussed the shortlisted names for the state with Nadda, Shah and others.

The BJP central leadership also discussed the names of probable candidates for Punjab on Monday. Union minister and party election in-charge for Punjab Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, election co-in-charge Meenakshi Lekhi, national general secretary and state in-charge Dushyant Gautam, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma were present in the meeting.

On Sunday, Goa and Uttarakhand BJP leaders met the central leadership and discussed the names recommended by the state units. BJP chief Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah discussed the shortlisted names for Uttarakhand and Goa with respective states units. Both the chief ministers -- Pushkar Singh Dhami and Pramod Sawant -- attended the meeting with their respective state leaders.

In its first meeting last week, the BJP CEC finalised candidates for 172 Assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh where polling will be held in the first three phases. The BJP, however, released the first list of 107 candidates for Uttar Pradesh.

Last Thursday, the BJP CEC meeting was held in a hybrid mode as few of the CEC members, including party chief Nadda, have tested positive for Covid-19. Nadda, however, recovered from infection and attended meetings on Monday at party headquarters.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Assembly polls will be held in seven phases in February-March starting from February 10, while Goa and Uttarakhand elections will be held on February 14, and in Manipur, it will also be in two phases -- on February 27 and March 3. Punjab assembly polls will be held on February 20. Counting of votes will take place on March 10.