BJP Concludes Candidate Selection Meeting For Haryana Polls: Former MPs, Children Of Senior Leaders Likely To Feature In List

The Chief Election Committee (CEC) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met on Thursday (29 August) to discuss the candidates for the assembly elections in Haryana, scheduled for 1 October.

Three names for each assembly seat were considered as potential candidates. It is likely that the BJP will release its first candidate list by Friday evening with around 50 names.

The meeting, held at the residence of BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda lasted for five hours and witnessed the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh.

Haryana Chief Minister (CM) Nayab Saini, former CM Manohar Lal Khattar and BJP's Haryana election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and co-in-charge Biplab Deb were also present in the meeting.

Prior to this meeting, Pradhan held a meeting with prominent leaders of Haryana at his residence which witnessed the participation of MP Krishan Pal Gurjar, Anil Vij, Sudha Yadav and Captain Abhimanyu.

The BJP is facing an anti-incumbency of 10 years in Haryana, to not let it harm the party's electoral prospects, the BJP may cut the tickets of almost half of the incumbent members of the legislative assembly (MLA).

The BJP currently has 40 MLAs in Haryana, which means that around 20 MLAs could be devoid of tickets. Additionally, the BJP will not give tickets to those who have lost in elections twice.

Many ministers might also lose tickets, while the leaders, who were trying for the Lok Sabha election tickets but could not get them, might be fielded for the assembly elections. Former MP Sunita Duggal is one such name.

The party is also planning to field sportspersons and 20 young candidates, including sons and daughters of senior leaders.

Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh's daughter Aarti, Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry's daughter Shruti and Kuldeep Bishnoi's son Bhavya might be fielded from Ateli, Tosham and Adampur respectively.

Almost half a dozen leaders coming from other parties and those BJP leaders who lost the Lok Sabha elections might also get tickets. Anil Vij will most likely be repeated from his constituency Ambala Cantt.