Modi, Shah discuss Lok Sabha candidates at BJP meet

New Delhi: The BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) on Saturday met to discuss the names of Lok Sabha election candidates for Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The meeting, headed by party president Amit Shah, was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior leaders and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari,  Jual Oram, Thawarchand Gehlot among others. The meeting continued till late night.

Among the states, whose candidates the CEC discussed, all seats of AP and Telangana and Uttarakhand will go to polls in the first phase on April 11.

The next CEC is scheduled to meet on Monday. Mr Shah is expected to meet party core group leaders from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday to discuss candidates. Ahead of the core group meeting, Union minister and Jhansi MP Uma Bharti wrote a letter to Mr Shah informing that she does not want to contest the forthcoming general polls.

Also, party’s Prayagraj(Allahabad )MP Shyamcharan Gupta switched over to SP amid speculation that the BJP had decided not to field him.