UP polls: BJP likely to declare 1st list of candidates within a week
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to finalise the candidate list for the first two phases of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls on Thursday, after the Central Election Committee's (CEC) meeting at the party headquarters here.
The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will be attended by the other members, BJP national president JP Nadda, senior Cabinet ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh among others.
Whereas, JP Nadda and Cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari are likely to join virtually, as they have been tested positive with coronavirus recently. Party sources said that candidates for 113 seats are going for polls in the first two phases will be finalised during the CEC meeting.
Meanwhile, a two-day meeting was held at the party headquarters by the party's core committee members to shortlist the candidates' names on January 11-12. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, BJP state president Swatantradev Singh and general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal were also present in the meeting. Party's state in-charge Radha Mohan Singh recently tested with COVID-19 positive. He last attended the party's meeting at Lucknow on January 10 to discuss the probable names of candidates.
Further, BJP is likely to declare the candidate list for the first two phases after the Makar Sankranti on January 14. The Saffron party also launched a door-to-door campaign — 'Maha Sampark Abhiyan' in the state on January 11. Under this campaign, party leaders and workers are campaigning at every house of their constituencies or area. At the same time, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the Election Commission has banned all physical rallies and gatherings till January 15. Hence, the party decided to go door-to-door and meet the voters. As per the Election Commission's regulation, a team of a maximum of five members will go door to door to meet the people.
The assembly polls in the highest populated state will be held in the 403 assembly seats in seven phases, starting from February 10, 2022. Elections in 58 assembly seats are scheduled in the first phase, 55 seats for the second phase on February 14, 2022, 59 assembly seats for the third phase on February 20, 2022, 59 seats for the fourth phase on February 23, 2022, 61 assembly seats for the fifth phase on February 27, 2022, 57 seats for the sixth phase on February March 3, 2022, and last 55 seats including the assembly constituencies of the eastern part of the state are going to poll during the seventh and the last phase of the polls on March 7, 2022.
