BJP first UP list of 200 to be out by July

Keeping in mind Uttar Pradesh’s complex caste arithmetic, the BJP could field at least 80 candidates who have joined from other political outfits in the upcoming Assembly elections. Also, learning from its past mistakes, when candidates names were announced just weeks before the polling day, the saffron party is also planning to announce names of the first batch of around 200 candidates by July. Politically crucial Uttar Pradesh with 403 Assembly seats will go to polls early next year. The list of 200 names could see many “new and young” faces.

Sources disclosed that BJP’s state in-charge Om Mathur and senior leaders from the state recently held a meeting with party president Amit Shah in this regard.

Though the BJP is hoping to repeat its 2014 Lok Sabha performance in the state in the Assembly elections, political pundits are predicting otherwise.

These 80 candidates, sources disclosed, will be fielded from Assembly constituencies where the party either do not have its “own” credible candidate or was at the third or fourth position during the past elections.

BJP poll strategists are also going through the “intrinsic caste arithmetic” of individual Assembly constituencies before finalising candidates, including those who have joined the saffron fold from other political outfits recently.

Of the 200 candidates that the BJP is planning to announce by July, names of some these 80 candidates could also figure.

BJP state leadership had also sought feedback from the sangh parivar cadre about candidates who have joined from other parties.

Meanwhile, the party has also put up its social media team to engage with supporters and the cadre in compiling issues that could be taken up constituency-wise, region-wise, as well as at the state-level while campaigning.