- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The ruling Hindu nationalist party may announce names of several candidates even before the election dates are announced to put a psychological pressure on the opposition, reports indicated.
By: Shubham Ghosh
WITH the announcement of the schedule of India’s general elections due soon, the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to make moves on picking its candidates that will be fielded.
Prime minister Narendra Modi, who is leading the party and its National Democratic Alliance from the front, attended a meeting of the BJP’s top decision-making body at the party headquarters on Thursday (29) night to pick the first list of candidates for the elections to the Lok Sabha or the popularly elected Lower House of the parliament.
If reports are to be believed, the Hindu nationalist party will announce some names even before the election dates are unveiled in a bid to put pressure on the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance which is also in the middle of preparations.
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Some of the bloc’s major parties, including the Indian National Congress, Samajwadi Party and Aam Aadmi Party have made seat-sharing agreements in a number of states, including the crucial one of Uttar Pradesh that sends 80 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha.
#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for the BJP CEC meeting at the party headquarters, in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/FxIcot184I
— ANI (@ANI) February 29, 2024
The sources added that besides Modi, home minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda, defence minister Rajnath Singh and other senior leaders were part of the meeting to focus on lists that the party’s 550-plus members drew up for the elections. The leaders first met at the residence of Modi before heading for the party headquarters. The prime minister was welcomed by Nadda with a rose at the headquarters.
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Among other prominent leaders of the BJP who would be present at the meeting were the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand — Yogi Adityanath, Pramod Sawant and Pushkar Dhami, respectively. Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, federal ministers such as Mansukh Mandaviya and Jyotiraditya Scindia were also present.
The sources added that the meeting would focus on names of candidates to be fielded in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala, among others.
Talks of alliances were also underway in the states of Punjab (with former ally Akali Dal); Andhra Pradesh (former ally Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena) and Tamil Nadu (with former ally AIADMK).
The final decision on candidates for these three states were put on hold.
The BJP may announce candidates’ names for 300 seats before March 10. It had done the same during the 2019 general election too when the party announced names of 164 candidates, weeks before the election dates were declared.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 303 out of 436 seats it had contested and its NDA won 351 seats in the 543-member strong Lok Sabha. The opposition, erstwhile United Progressive Alliance, could win only 90 seats.
