NEW DELHI: In the wake of poll verdicts in Maharashtra and Haryana not meeting the saffron party’s expectations, the top BJP leadership on Thursday held a marathon brainstorming on Jharkhand Assembly elections.
The BJP central election committee (CEC) is also likely to meet this week to discuss the candidates for the elections.
The BJP has categorised 81 Assembly seats in three categories – strong, challenging and “never won yet”.
BJP chief Amit Shah is also likely to meet the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) over seat adjustment. The BJP may allocate a maximum of two Assembly seats for Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP).
Sources said that BJP working president J P Nadda also met the Lok Sabha MPs from the state separately and sought feedback on Assembly constituencies in the Parliamentary seats.
“Nadda sought to know about irritants in better coordination for the Assembly constituencies. He also discussed ways to ensure that there’s better coordination among the MPs and the candidates along with the party workers in the elections,” sources said.
Earlier, the Jharkhand core group of the BJP consisting of Chief Minister Raghubar Das, co-incharge Ram Vichar Netam, Nand Kishore Yadav, Saudan Singh, Arjun Munda, state chief Luxman Gilwa went in a marathon huddle at the residence of the party vice president O P Mathur.
Sources said the core group discussed the list of candidates in details in a bid to prepare the final list for the meeting of the central election committee. Sources said that the state BJP core group later headed to the residence of the Union Minister for Home Affairs and party chief Amit Shah.
The Jharkhand state unit had come up with the list of the candidates with two and three names of the possible nominees for each of the Assembly constituency.
Ex-Maoist Kundan Pahan wants to contest polls
Surrendered Maoist commander Kundan Pahan, currently lodged in Hazaribagh Open Jail along with his family, will seek the court’s permission for contesting the upcoming Assembly elections in Jharkhand. Pahan, facing more than 100 criminal cases related to loot and murder, including that of killing former Minister Ramesh Singh Munda, is likely to contest from Tamar Assembly constituency.
“We will soon be filing an application seeking permission from the special NIA Court in Ranchi to contest the Assembly polls,” said his advocate Ishwar Dayal.
Pahan, the regional committee secretary of Communist Party of India (Maoist), also an accused in the killing of special branch inspector Francis Indwar in 2008 and of looting Rs 5 crore from an ICICI bank cash van.