The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP will be meeting on Tuesday to examine and select candidates for Haryana and Maharashtra Assemblies ahead of their poll dates announcement later this week.
According to sources, the party would expedite the finalisation of candidates for the two dates and also work out the detailed schedule for “an aggressive poll blitz” in these States with Prime Minister Narendra Modi again figuring as “the star campaigner”.
Party president Amit Shah is to chair the CEC meet. The recently re-constituted BJP’s CEC include Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, Thawarchand Gehlot, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jagat Prakash Nadda, Ramlalji, Jual Oram, Sayed Shahnawaz Hussain and Vijaya Rahatkar (woman wing chief).
The process of selection of candidates for Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir is also underway but it would be finalised “a little later” as poll dates for the two States are likely to be announced by the Election Commission separately after first issuing notification for Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly.
Sources said the poll dates for Haryana and Maharashtra could be fixed sometime between Dussehra (October 02-03) to Deepawali (October 20-21).
The CEC may also touch upon the political build up towards the formation of Government in Delhi and to put an end to the continuing stalemate as the State party is seemingly hesitant to take a final call on the issue. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that a call will be taken once formal proposal is received from the lt Governor Najeeb Jung.
The BJP’s CEC meet is a signal that the party sorted out some of its poll issues with Shiv Sena (SS), its ally in Maharashtra, during Shah’s visit to to the State last week. The BJP has insisted on contesting half of the Assembly seats ‘in proportion’ to its increased vote-share in lok Sabha polls.
According to sources, the BJP and SS will have a joint poll campaign after the conclusion of seat sharing talks. “Modi will be the star campaigner and his campaign dates are being worked out keeping in view his foreign tours and other commitments,” said a senior party leader.
The BJP campaign in the Assembly polls would list out “paralysis of leadership and governance” in the Congress-ruled States of Mharashtra and Haryana and “command performance” of BJP-ruled States in the face of ‘the discrimination’ from the UPA-2 at the Centre.
“local issues would of course dominate the campaign,” said the party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. All top BJP leaders and Chief Ministers are to figure in the list of poll campaigners.