BJP central panel meets to decide names for Jharkhand
BJP's central election committee held a meeting on Tuesday where it discussed potential candidates for about 60 seats in Jharkhand, starting with 28 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, according to people familiar with the matter.
Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and other committee members, senior party leaders from Jharkhand were also present during the meeting, they said. BJP is focusing on seats reserved for STs as it managed to win only two of the 28 seats in the 2019 election.
The party has decided to field senior party leaders and those who have joined from other parties, aiming to make the contest tougher for the INDIA bloc on the ST seats, said the people. In the first list, likely to be announced on Thursday, BJP will release the list of seats where senior leaders will be fielded, they said.
The party will give 11 seats to ally AJSU, two seats to the JDU and LJP (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan will be persuaded not to contest the election, said state leaders, adding that it is up to the central leadership to decide whether they are willing to give one seat to Paswan's party.
Jharkhand BJP president Babulal Marandi is likely to be the party candidate from Dhanwar assembly seat, according to sources. Former CM Champai Soren will contest from his Sarai Kela seat while his son Babulal Soren is being considered for Ghatshila, they said, adding that the leader of the opposition in Jharkhand assembly Amar Kumar Bauri will contest from his
