NEW DELHI: The Central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked party leaders in Delhi, particularly Members of Parliament (MPs), not to influence the candidate selection process for the upcoming assembly elections in the city.
According to Delhi BJP leaders, the party’s working president, JP Nadda, has categorically told MPs not to recommend names for assembly poll tickets.
The message was conveyed to the state leaders during the party’s core group’s meeting, which took place on Wednesday evening, to strategise elections to be held next year.
The meeting was attended by Union ministers Prakash Javadekar, incharge of the state unit for elections, Hardeep Puri (co-incharge), Lok Sabha MPs except Gautam Gambhir, and office-bearers of Delhi BJP.
“Naddaji said that the central election committee and the party leadership are taking care of ticket distribution and the best possible winnable candidate will be nominated to contest. He said that the city parliamentarians should not recommend names of their favourites for election tickets,” said a member of the core group who attended the meeting.
Commenting on the directives of the party president, a Delhi BJP functionary said that it was clear that MPs should not go out of the way and push names.
“It also means that the central leadership has already started the process to zero in on suitable candidates,” he added.