NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday morning released the first list of 62 candidates for the Himachal Pradesh assembly poll, which is scheduled on November 12.
The list came hours after the meeting of the party’s newly constituted Central Election Committee (CEC) on Tuesday evening with PM Narendra Modi.
Among the candidatures announced, five are women and one is a retired IAS official. Meanwhile, party sources said that the party has decided not to give tickets to any tainted or corrupt candidates in the assembly elections.
“It was unanimously decided to that tickets would be given to the candidates of a clean political image on the basis of their performances in the party and their wider reach among the people of sections,” said a source.
They also said that wider discussions were held at Tuesday’s CEC meeting on issues like the selection and finalisation of the party’s candidates.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union minister and party’s principal strategist Amit Shah, Defence minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president J P Nadda, BL Santosh and other members.
Prior to the meeting, an internal poll through ballot papers among its office-bearers across Himachal Pradesh was held to know their opinions on prospective candidates.
Recently, the BJP reconstituted the party’s central election committee including some new members like Dr K Laxman (nation president of BJP OBC Morcha), Dr Sudha Yadav, former union minister Satyanarayan Jatiya, former IPS officer turned politician Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis Bhupendra Yadav and RS MP Om Mathur after dropping a few faces .
Sources said that the party is likely to finalise the names of candidates and their respective assembly seats out of a total of 68 seats for Himachal Pradesh assembly polls, either by Tuesday night or Wednesday. The BJP’s CEC has now a total of 15 members, including PM Modi and new entrants like BS Yediyurappa and others.
The Election Commission of India has set the last date for filing nominations on October 25 in Himachal Pradesh.