Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present at the BJP headquarters on Friday evening where discussions on tickets for the upcoming state elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Telangana took place in the presence of leaders from all three states and members of the Central Election Committee (CEC).
Sources present in the meeting told News18 that so far as Madhya Pradesh was concerned, the party had a total of 94 seats to be discussed that were yet to be declared. “The CEC has given its approval to candidates on 92 of the 94 seats,” the source said.
Several Union ministers, including Narendra Singh Tomar, Pralhad Patel, and Faggan Singh Kulaste, are in the fray in the state and the party has already fielded some sitting MPs but that will be it, the source added.
“It is pretty unlikely that the party will field any more Union ministers or sitting MPs in the election in the state,” another source added. This is said to be a crucial development, given that there were speculations about Jyotiraditya Scindia being asked to contest from Shivpuri.
In the CEC meeting for Rajasthan, the BJP leadership had a discussion on close to 84 seats. “Of the 84 seats, 79 have been finalised and this may include some sitting MPs,” a source told News18.
Rajasthan is a key state for the fortunes of the saffron party which can sense victory in the offing amid the anti-incumbency against the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state.
However, with no announcement of a chief ministerial face and suspense over the future of Vasundhara Raje Scindia, the party is treading the path carefully as eventually, the decider between the two sides could hinge on who distributes tickets better.
Before Friday’s CEC meeting, party leaders held an internal meeting that went on till past midnight on Thursday as well as a meeting of the state leadership with BJP chief JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah at Nadda’s office on Friday morning. The saffron party has declared its first list of candidates on 41 of the 200 seats in which several sitting MPs like Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Diya Kumari have been fielded.
Meanwhile, after a detailed core group meeting with Prakash Javadekar on Friday, followed by JP Nadda, the Telangana unit discussed close to 55 seats of the 119. The party’s prime focus will be on giving representation to OBCs. “The party is likely to give 40 per cent of its tickets to candidates from the OBC category. Right from Etala Rajendran to Bandi Sanjay, there are several OBC leaders in the party fold,” a source told News18.
While there is still suspense over the candidature of BJP state president and Union minister G Kishan Reddy, it is pretty certain that Rajya Sabha MP Dr K Laxman will not contest in the upcoming state polls.
Among the list of candidates, the party has finalised seats for three Lok Sabha MPs to contest in the upcoming elections, including Bandi Sanjay from Karimnagar, Arvind Dharmapuri from Korutla, and S Bapu Rao from Boath.
The saffron party is likely to declare its seats for the upcoming elections to all the three states in the next 48-72 hours.
While the state of Madhya Pradesh goes into elections on November 17, a single-phase election will take place for Rajasthan on November 25, followed by Telangana polls on November 30. The counting for all the states, including Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, will take place on December 3.
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