New Delhi: After a marathon meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was organised by core members, the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting is likely to be held soon for the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh according to reports.
The core members held a meeting on Sunday to discuss the finalisation of the remaining candidates. The meeting was attended by Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan, Deputy CMs Dinesh Sharma, and Keshav Prasad Maurya along with BJP state president Swantantra Dev Singh apart from other core members, according to the news agency ANI.
As of now, the BJP has announced 165 candidates for the state. The upcoming list will be significant as the party is yet to offer tickets from Ayodhya and Lucknow Cantt seats. There were speculations of chief minister Yogi Adityanath contesting from the Ayodhya seat.
With the party declaring that he will contest from Gorakhpur (Urban), the Ayodhya seat has become even more interesting.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is contesting from the Sirathu assembly constituency of Prayagraj district Notably, Aparna Yadav, who recently left the Samajwadi Party and joined the BJP has reportedly asked for a ticket from the Lucknow Cantt seat. She had contested from the seat in 2017.
On the other hand, BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi wants to resign from the Parliamentary post paving way for her son Mohit Joshi's candidature in the same constituency.
Other BJP leaders are looking to contest from this constituency. Elections to the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.