AHMEDABAD: The process of deciding the panel of Bhartiya Janta Patry (BJP) candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly election is complete.
On Monday night, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, State president CR Patil and other state organizational leaders reached Delhi to participate in a two-day central election committee meeting and parliamentary board meeting.
The Central Parliamentary Board meeting is likely to be held in Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in which candidates will be finalised for Gujarat.
Sources say that after this meeting the first phase of candidates is likely to be announced on Wednesday late night or Thursday morning.
For the panel selection of BJP candidates, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah stayed in Gujarat for three consecutive days last week and finalized a panel of three names of candidates from the four zones of Gujarat, which include North Gujarat, Central Gujarat, South Gujarat, and Saurashtra Zone. The names have been submitted to the central parliamentary board.
The process of filing nominations for 89 seats of South Gujarat, Saurashtra, and Kutch in the first phase of Gujarat polls has started. In these areas, the nomination form can be filled out till 14th November. For the second phase of elections, the process of filling out the nomination form will start from 10th November.
Sources associated with the BJP say that the party may announce the names of the 182 candidates from Gujarat to be decided in the central parliamentary board meeting on Wednesday in four or more phases.
A BJP leader, on the condition of anonymity, says that the names of more than 3500 candidates for 182 seats were discussed in the Gujarat Parliamentary Board meeting. Out of which more than 1500 names were scrutinized, from which three possible names per seat have been finalized and in some seats, a panel of five names was prepared.
Sources are saying that the BJP will field new candidates in more than 50 seats this time. Among the new candidates, youth will be given priority. Not only that, with the aim of increasing women's representation in the assembly this time, the BJP has included a female candidate per district in four cities namely Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, and Surat.
The BJP has decided to give tickets to more than a total of 36 women.