PM Modi chairs midnight meet of BJP CEC to pick candidates for LS polls

New Delhi, March 1: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) to finalise the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The meeting which began at 10.45 p.m. on Thursday ended at 3.15 a.m. on Friday.

The meeting was attended by party National President J.P. Nadda, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National BJP Organisation General Secretary B.L. Santhosh, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, party leaders K. Laxman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura and other top members of the CEC.

Union Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje were also present in the party's CEC meeting.

Besides, Deputy Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states and party in-charges of various states, co-election in-charges and top leaders of the State Core Committee formed regarding the upcoming Lok Sabha elections were also present in the CEC meet.

According to sources, earlier on Thursday, a high-level meeting was held in the presence of Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda at the official residence of Prime Minister Modi.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP's CEC meeting held the brainstorming session to finalise the names of party candidates on more than 150 Lok Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Goa, Jharkhand, Delhi, Tripura, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, and rest of states and union territories.

According to the BJP sources, the party is likely to release the first list of Lok Sabha candidates on Friday.

Prime Minister Modi has set the aim of securing 400-plus seats for the NDA-led BJP alliance in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections for which he has appealed to the people to help BJP win more than 370 seats.

At the same time, the Prime Minister, who is working for making a developed India by the year 2047, also wants to promote young candidates within the BJP to take the party forward.