BJP CEC meeting: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called a meeting of its Central Election Committee (CEC) at the party headquarters in the national capital today (August 16) as part of preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections to five states later this year.
The meeting will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP National President JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, along with all the 15 CEC members.
BJP is gearing up its preparations for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram polls. Sources said that there will be deliberations on strengthening the party in the weak seats. The meeting is also likely to discuss the selection of candidates and campaign strategy. The party has prepared a list of seats that it perceives need more focus.
Sources added the state leadership will give feedback on the work being done at the grassroots including on reaching out to people about the welfare schemes of BJP-led central government.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and state BJP chief VD Sharma, along with Chhattisgarh BJP chief Arun Sao and other party leaders from these two states associated with election campaigns may also attend the CEC meeting.
Of the five states going to polls later this year, BJP is in power in Madhya Pradesh.
According to sources, the party high command may take some major decisions regarding the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections to be held by the end of the year.
In general, the party CEC meeting is called to discuss the names of the probable candidates for the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Such meetings are usually called only after the election dates are announced by the Election Commission, but surprisingly this time the party has called the CEC meeting at a time when the election dates are yet to be disclosed.
However, sources said that during the CEC meeting, there will be a brainstorm over the seats on which the party is in a weaker position in these two states. Sources added that the party wants to finalise the names of candidates for these vulnerable seats in advance. However, their names would not be revealed publicly immediately.
As per the sources, these selected candidates will be informed by the party about the finalisation of their names and would be instructed to commence their poll campaign so that by the time election schedules are announced, they would have a lead over the candidates of rival parties.
