NEW DELHI: The BJP central election committee has spelt out broad guidelines for candidate selection, barring sons and daughters of sitting BJP MPs and MLAs and those above 75 years of age from contesting the upcoming Assembly elections.
The broad guidelines were spelt out even as the top brass met on Wednesday to discuss the Haryana candidate list while indicating it will not have any electoral tie-up in the state.
The BJP CEC, however, is likely to discuss the list of candidates in detail on Sunday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the meeting.
BJP chief Amit Shah, working president J P Nadda, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and other senior leaders who attended the Wednesday meeting at the party headquarters are believed to have underlined that the party would “not promote political dynasty” at the cost of the aspirations of party workers.
BJP leaders maintained that Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa would remain the “sole exception” to the age ceiling norm due to compelling political situations in the state, adding, however, that “None of the sitting legislators in Haryana breach the age norm.”
“The Haryana party unit has finalised names of candidates for all the 90 Assembly constituencies going by the stated guidelines that relatives of MPs-MLAs won’t be accommodated and the age ceiling won’t be crossed in nominations,” Haryana BJP unit chief Subhash Barala said. He added that the party would give a fair share of seats to winnable women candidates.
“The first list of the candidates for Haryana would be released soon after the CEC meeting. The first list would include the names of ministers, the state unit party chief and other senior leaders,” said a functionary.
“We would look to give representations to all sections of society shunning caste politics of Congress and Indian National Lok Dal offshoots,” added Barala.