The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, convened on Thursday night at the party headquarters in the national capital to finalize the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Among those present at the meeting were BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. Additionally, prominent leaders such as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gujarat’s Bhupendra Patel, Madhya Pradesh’s Mohan Yadav, Chhattisgarh’s Vishnu Deo Sai, Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Goa’s Pramod Sawant, Devendra Fadnavis, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and Keshav Maurya attended the meeting at the party headquarters.
Prior to the CEC meeting, PM Modi held a separate discussion with party president Nadda and Home Minister Shah at his residence. Meanwhile, other senior leaders deliberated over the lists of potential candidates at the BJP headquarters, as reported by NDTV.
The meeting is expected to focus on finalizing candidates for Lok Sabha seats in states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Telangana, Rajasthan, Goa, Gujarat, and others. However, decisions regarding candidates for Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu are currently pending.
Earlier reports from PTI suggested that several union ministers, including Bhupender Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Mansukh Mandaviya, are likely to contest in the Lok Sabha elections after not being nominated for another term in the Rajya Sabha during the recent biennial polls.
