The BJP may announce its first list of Lok Sabha candidates over the weekend, party leaders have said. The names were decided at a marathon meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC), which went on till the early hours of Friday. “It will be speculation to guess the exact number to be announced but the list is expected to be a significant one,” said a BJP leader. The list is likely to feature some high-profile names, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as constituencies that the party lost last time, according to BJP insiders. The ruling party wants to ensure that its candidates for the seats it failed to win last time get ample time to campaign and reach out to the electorate. It has also informally deployed in-charges for these “weak” seats. In UP, BJP general secretary Sunil Bansal is paying additional attention to the seats that the party lost last time, a leader said on the condition of anonymity. The party is hopeful of flipping these constituencies — it won 62 of the 78 Lok Sabha seats it contested in UP last time — in the backdrop of the Ayodhya Ram temple inauguration, the decision of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to join the NDA, and a weaker Opposition compared to last time. “The BJP’s advantage against the Congress is so clear that even if the latter chooses its nominees knowing who our candidates are, the popularity of PM Modi will ensure a sweep,” said a BJP leader. Another BJP functionary pointed out that the party announced candidates for the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections even before the Election Commission (EC) declared the poll schedule. A BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh said an early announcement of the Lok Sabha candidates would send out the message of the BJP being a disciplined party with “resolute leadership”. In UP, which has the most Lok Sabha Seats at 80, the first list may have the names of about 20 candidates, according to sources. The party is also expected to leave two seats for the RLD, which joined the NDA last month. The Jayant Chaudhary-led party also voted for the BJP’s eighth candidate in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections, helping it defeat the Samajwadi Party’s third candidate. The BJP is also expected to leave one or two seats for the Apna Dal (S), one for the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and one for the NISHAD Party. The party leadership has received a panel of probable candidates for all 10 parliamentary constituencies in Haryana. This has put a question mark over the fate of the NDA in the state. The Jannnayak Janta Party (JJP) of Dushyant Chautala is an NDA ally and part of the ruling coalition. “While we have given a panel of names for all 10 seats, it is up to the central leadership to decide if it wants to leave a seat for the JJP. That is not a call we can take,” a BJP leader from Haryana said on the condition of anonymity. The BJP won all 10 constituencies in the state last time. Amid a strong buzz in BJP circles that former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan may be fielded from Vidisha, sources said the BJP might announce almost all candidates or field nominees for 10 of the 29 seats in the first list. In Chhattisgarh, the buzz is that the first list is likely to feature the names of candidates for seats in the two tribal belts of Surguja and Bastar. The BJP CEC meeting was initially expected to begin on Thursday evening but started around 10.20 pm after the arrival of PM Modi at the party headquarters. The meeting concluded around 3.30 am.
