New Delhi: BJP on Thursday released its first list 39 candidates for the Madhya Pradesh elections scheduled later this year. The party also released its list of 21 candidates for Chhattisgarh polls.
In its first list, the party has named five women candidates each in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The list of candidates was released a day after BJP Central Election Committee meeting was held in Delhi. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP President JP Nadda, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouha, among others.
According to reports, the meeting discussed on strengthening the party organisation, with focus on Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh polls.
As per reports, PM Modi asked the party top brass to announce its first list of candidates as early as possible so that they get enough time to do the ground work ahead of the elections.
In Madhya Pradesh, the party has fielded Sarla Vijendra Rawat from Sabalgarh, Priyanka Meena from Chachaoura, Anchal Sonkar from Jabalpur Purba (SC), Lalita Yadav from Chhatarpur, Nirmala Bhuriya from Petlawad, Alok Sharma from Bhopal Uttar, Bhanu Bhuriya from Jhabua (ST), and Dhruv Narayan Singh from Bhopal Madhya, among others.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee identified 106 candidates for the assembly election, Hindustan Times quoted a senior Congress leader as saying. Of the 106, 66 will be contesting in seats that the party has not won in the last three assembly polls and which are strongholds of BJP.
In Chhattisgarh, the saffron party has fielded Lok Sabha MP Vijay Baghel from Patan, Bhulan Singh Maravi from Premnagar, Shakuntala Singh Porthe from Pratappur (ST), Laxmi Rajwade from Bhatgaon, Alka Chandrakar from Khallari, Sarla Kosaria from Saraipali (SC), Gita Ghasi Sahu from Khujji and Maniram Kashyap from Bastar (ST), among others.
Notably, apart from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are also scheduled to go to polls later this year.