BJP holds first meeting to discuss 2024 Lok Sabha candidates
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held its first Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting to finalise candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at midnight Thursday at its national headquarters in New Delhi.
Lasting more than four hours, it was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president J Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, and several senior Union cabinet ministers and chief ministers. The other attendees included Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan
The meeting lasted for more than four hours from 10.30 pm. The BJP is reportedly looking to finalise the name of a majority of the candidates before the Election Commission announces the election dates, which is likely to be in the next fortnight. The elections are expected to be held in April and May, with multiple phases in states with a history of election-related violence.
The BJP’s candidate lists, whether for national or assembly elections, are interesting for who is left out and not just for who got tickets.
Several Union ministers, like Bhupender Yadav, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mansukh Mandaviya, and others who had not been given tickets in the Rajya Sabha elections are expected to be fielded for Lok Sabha.
Last time, in 2019, then Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad fought and won his first Lok Sabah election from Patna Sahib, defeating Congress star candidate Shatrughan Sinha.
