BJP Leaders Discuss LS Poll Candidates

New Delhi: Ahead of the BJP central election committee's (CEC) meeting on Thursday, the top brass of the party on Wednesday brainstormed over the probable candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in many states. Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda held separate meetings with party leaders from Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttarakhand, among others.

So far, similar meetings with leaders from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana have already been held.

According to party sources, the first list is expected to include the names of heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Shah. The first list may also include many seats that the BJP had lost in the 2019 general election. 

The names of Mr Modi and Mr Shah, who was then the party's national president and had made his Lok Sabha poll debut from Gandhinagar, were on the party's first list of candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well. 

While the lists of candidates in 2019 were released only after the Election Commission had announced the general election schedule, it is going to be different this time as the BJP looks to follow the template seen during the last round of Assembly polls in five states when it named its candidates, especially in the seats the party had lost five years earlier, before the announcement of poll dates.

On Wednesday, the BJP also approached the Election Commission, urging the poll body to videograph the voting process at all polling stations during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and set up booths in complexes housing high-rise buildings.

In a memorandum, the BJP also urged the poll panel to consider reforming the approval process for political parties' media content to make it faster, allowing them adequate time to plan their campaign.

It also requested the EC to ensure there is no ambiguity in the rule pertaining to putting up flags and making wall paintings by party workers at their homes during polls. 

The party delegation, comprising Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and party national general secretary Arun Singh met the poll panel with the demands.

Mr Vaishnaw said the BJP delegation urged the poll panel to set up booths at high-rise apartment complexes in urban areas as much as possible so that the maximum number of eligible voters at such residential buildings could exercise their franchise.

"Our second request was that video recordings be done at 100 per cent polling booths (during the elections)," Mr Vaishnaw said.

At present, videography is done at 50 per cent polling booths only, he said, adding that 100 per cent coverage of the polling booths will ensure proper documentation of everything happening there and will increase people's faith in the country's vibrant democracy. 

"We requested the beginning of reforms in the process of granting approval to the media content of political parties. The approval process should be made faster so that every political party gets enough time to present their views and mould their campaign," said the Union minister.