Chhattisgarh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to release its first list of candidates by October 18 even as the task of selecting consensus candidates from more than 60 old and new ticket aspirants who had been continously trying for the past several days.
According to the party insiders, Chief Minister Raman Singh, BJP national vice-president and in-charge of Chhattisgarh, JP Nadda and the BJP national co-organisation General Secretary Saudan Singh have been confronted with a volley of demands and protests from party workers from several constituencies leading to delay in the selection of candidates.
The party leadership has already made up its mind for repeating at least half of the sitting MlAs in the polls with no change in their constituencies.In the rest of the constituencies, the party leadership has been seriously considering to pick up new faces from its district units and panchayat bodies. In the last Assembly polls BJP had won 50 out of the total 90 seats.
The BJP leadership has also been consulting the lok Sabha MPs for screening candidates who have applied for the first time for a party ticket. Since Wednesday, a large number of BJP workers at the Panchayat and city levels have been storming the State BJP headquarters with their preferences of candidates while also cautioning not to support some sitting MlAs if they are offered a ticket to re-contest polls.
Party sources informed that Nadda has received more than 200 applications from ticket aspirants mostly by the freshers. The senior leaders have also received sizable number of names of prospective candidates from the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and the Mahila Morcha which have been backed by the district level leaders of the two wings.
However, despite intense struggle over tickets, the BJP leadership is expected to come out with the first list of candidates by October 18 even as the Congress on Friday announced its first list of candidates giving an opportunity to the BJP for choosing the right candidate to take on the Opposition.