Lok Sabha Elections 2019: BJP to hold core group meeting to finalise list of candidates for 7 states

BJP president Amit Shah is slated to head a core committee meeting of the party on Sunday to finalise the list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The party top brass is likely to brainstorm on candidates for Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Goa and Rajasthan.

The BJP is likely to release its first list of candidates on Monday, when its central election committee is scheduled to meet. The list will have names of most of the candidates for the first phase of polling, which will be held on April 11 in 91 seats.

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States that will go to polls on April 11 in the first phase of the upcoming seven-phase Lok Sabha elections are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and other top BJP leaders will attend the central election committee meeting.

A meeting of the CEC was held on Saturday as well to finalise the names of candidates. Sources said the discussion was held on seats in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttarakhand and the seven northeastern states.

Sources also said that in Saturday's meeting there was no discussion on Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 parliamentary seats and where the BJP is still in talks with smaller parties to finalise seat sharing. The BJP won 71 seats in the state in the 2014 general election.

On the other hand, the Congress has so far released four lists of candidates.