BJP leaders meet at Rajnath’s residence to discuss LS speaker candidate

New Delhi: A meeting of top BJP leaders was held at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence on Tuesday evening to discuss the names of candidates for the Lok Sabha speaker and deputy speaker.

Among those who attended the meeting were Manohar Lal Khattar, Bhupender Yadav, Virendra Kumar, Piyush Goyal, Annapurna Devi, S Jaishankar, JD(U)’s Lalan Singh, and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan.

The election for the Lok Sabha speaker’s post will be held on June 26, two days after the beginning of the first session of the Lower House.

Meanwhile, a separate meeting of the Maharashtra BJP core group was also expected to be held at the party headquarters later in the evening to discuss the party’s strategy for the assembly polls, due to be held in the state later this year, sources said.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, party state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Ashish Shelar, MP Ashok Chavan, minister Girish Mahajan and other leaders are expected to attend the meeting, which will be presided over by BJP chief JP Nadda.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh are also expected to be present at the meeting, according to the sources.