New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released the first lists of its candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The party has announced 21 candidates for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly, and 39 for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly.
Chattisgarh’s first candidate list included 5 women candidates and 11 seats for reserved candidates.
Madhya Pradesh’s first list of candidates in which it included five women candidates. The party has fielded its SC Morcha national president, Lal Singh Arya from Gohad in Bhind district, and its national secretary, Omprakash Dhurwey, will contest the poll from Dindori’s Shahpura assembly constituency.
Similarly in Chhattisgarh, Lok Sabha MP Vijay Baghel has been fielded by the BJP to contest the poll from Patan seat.
The announcement comes a day after discussions in the BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting regarding poll preparations for Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
According to sources, the committee discussed preparations in poll-bound Chhattisgarh and discussed some seats.
Earlier on Wednesday, the committee discussed poll preparations in Madhya Pradesh and the impact of various welfare schemes of the party’s governments in the state and at the Centre.
Of 90 seats, the CEC discussed the panel of candidates on 27 seats, the sources said, adding that the party has categorised seats into four categories – A, B, C, and D – for better planning in its electoral effort.
They said that classification will help give sharper focus to seats that the party considers weak.
Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked state party leaders to focus on “weak seats” and continue dialogue with people through various programmes.
While ‘A’ category seats are those which BJP has won every time in the past polls, ‘B’ category has seats the party has had mixed results in terms of win and loss, the sources said.
The ‘C’ category has seats where BJP is weak while the ‘D’ category comprises those constituencies which BJP has never won, they said.
The meeting was held at BJP headquarters and discussions concerning Chhattisgarh lasted for about two hours.
They said all state leaders were told to work unitedly to get the best results. The meeting related to Madhya Pradesh lasted for about one-and-a-half hours. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state BJP president VD Sharma and other prominent leaders were also present at the meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Chhattisgarh election in charge Om Prakash Mathur, co-incharge Mansukh Mandviya and former Chief Minister Raman Singh were among the leaders present at the meeting.
Five states – Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram – will go to the polls by the end of this year.
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