Lok Sabha Polls 2019: BJP likely to announce candidates for first two phases today

The Bharatiya Janata Party BJP is likely to release its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday evening, according to reports. The BJP central election committee will meet in the evening to discuss candidates for seats from Bihar, western Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and West Bengal. A total of 188 seats go to polls in the first two phases of polling to be held on April 11 and 18. With several leaders from the Congress and other Opposition parties taking the saffron plunge, the BJP is looking to expand its footprint in states such as Kerala and West Bengal this time around.

An Economic Times report said that those people who have been denied tickets by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party are in talks with the BJP leadership and some others are likely to join the party in the coming days.

With the BJP closely accessing the developments in the Opposition camp, there has been a lot of activity in the BJP headquarters with ticket-seekers and their supporters queuing up to meet party president Amit Shah. Some of the sitting BJP MLAs from Uttar Pradesh are vying for a Lok Sabha ticket. 

Giridih MP Ravindra Pandey is miffed at BJP for giving the seat to ally AJSU and has been seeking an audience with Shah for the past few days. Some of the sitting BJP MPs from Bihar reportedly want to move to other seats to beat anti-incumbency but the party brass is not favourable to the idea. BJP has given five seats it won in 2014 to ally JDU Candidates from the five seats of Uttarakhand are also likely to be announced. Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, who won Garhwal, is likely to be replaced due to his old age, the ET reported. His son Manish switched to Congress on Thursday.