NEW DELHI: The Central Election Committee of the BJP on Sunday evening met to deliberate on the candidates’ lists for Maharashtra and Haryana. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis is likely to unveil the seat adjustment pact with Shiv Sena in the state on Monday.
The BJP is learnt to have earmarked around 125 Assembly seats for the Sena. The BJP is likely to contest around 150 constituencies in the state.
BJP chief Amit Shah chaired the CEC meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, working president J P Nadda and others. The CEC first dwelt on the list of candidates for Haryana for 90 Assembly seats. Later, the CEC took up the discussions on Maharashtra.
The meeting on Maharashtra was, however, inconclusive. Chief ministers of Haryana and Maharashtra Manohar Lal Khattar and Devendra Fadanvis respectively, along with the state unit chiefs Subhash Barala and Chandrakant Patil were also present at the two separate meetings.
“The Haryana list has been approved by the CEC. It would be released shortly. The state chief minister and most of his Cabinet colleagues would contest from the respective existing Assembly constituencies,” said a senior BJP functionary.
The BJP is likely to release the first list of candidates for Maharashtra on Monday. “All the names of the candidates in the two states would be released in the next three days,” added the BJP functionary.
Maharashtra: Congress releases first list
The Congress on Sunday released its first list of 51 candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, fielding former CM Ashok Chavan from the Bhokar constituency and state party chief Vijay Balasaheb Thorat from Sangamner. The party has decided to repeat all sitting MLAs.
Aaditya Thackeray to make debut from Worli
The Shiv Sena on Sunday said it has decided to field Aaditya Thackeray, the elder son of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, from the Worli Assembly constituency in Mumbai. With this, Aaditya has become the first member of the Thackeray clan ever to contest an election.