New Delhi: The BJP’s Central Election Committee is expected to meet on Saturday and Sunday to finalise its candidates for the upcoming state elections, with the party looking to conclude much of its deliberations on the contestants before the poll process formally begins.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and several other Union ministers, besides party chief JP Nadda, are among the members of the apex committee that takes the final call on the candidates.
Rajasthan is likely to figure for the first time in this third Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting related to the polls in five states, sources said.
It had discussed candidates for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the two earlier meetings.
With the party fielding three Union ministers, besides four other MPs, as candidates for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, it may continue with the strategy in Rajasthan.
Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kailash Choudhary are from the state where the BJP won all but one of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
Assembly polls are also due in Telangana and Mizoram.
The Election Commission is likely to set the electoral process formally rolling in all five states in the first half of October.
The elections are likely to be held in November-December.