Seeking to pressurise its allies on seat sharing arrangements as well as give its candidates ample time to campaign in their constituencies, the BJP leadership on Friday decided to finalise candidates for the Lok Sabha elections by the end of this month.
??The parliamentary board of BJP on Friday decided that the party?s Central Election Committee should finalise candidates for most of the Lok Sabha seats in two phases. The first phase of meetings will be held from January 19 to 21, followed by the second phase to be held on January 28 and 29,?? BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said.
By completing the exercise by the month end, party circles asserted that the leadership would be able to give more time to the national executive and national council meetings, which are scheduled to be held from February 6 to 8 in Nagpur. ??We will be able to concentrate on other aspects including preparation of party agenda and manifesto as well as winning new allies?? a senior leader said. He added that preliminary discussions on the party?s approach to election campaigning was also taken up.
The parliamentary party board meeting additionally took up issues to be discussed with the RSS leadership. Senior BJP leaders, led by L K Advani, will be holding a meeting with RSS general secretary Mohan Bhagwat and others later, party leaders said. Besides Advani and party president Rajnath Singh, those who attended the parliamentary board meeting on Friday included Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj.
The party?s parliamentary board also appointed Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Shanta Kumar and senior leader Thawar Chand Gehlot as central observers for choosing the leader of the party in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly. It is however yet to decide a date for the legislative party meeting.The BJP won an unprecedented 11 seats in the recently concluded polls in J&K.