BJP CEC to meet today to finalise candidates for Uttar Pradesh elections

The BJP Central Election Committee (CEC) will meet on Thursday to finalise candidates for Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

The meeting will reportedly be held in hybrid form as a few of the CEC members, including party chief J P Nadda, have tested positive for Covid-19.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other CEC members, who are physically attending the meeting, have reached party headquarters here.

Also Read -- Not reacting to Yogi's 80-20 rhetoric may make sense

According to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join the meeting virtually and the CEC is likely to finalise names of candidates for the first two or three phases of polls. "After finalisation of candidates, names will be announced accordingly," they said.

The Assembly polls will be held in seven phases in February-March starting from February 10. Counting of votes will be held on March 10.

In the last two days, a lot of discussion and deliberation has taken place in meetings chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. "In the last two days in marathon meetings lasting over 10 hours, names have been shortlisted for most of the seats. Once the CEC finalises the names, the BJP will announce the candidates," a senior party functionary said.

Apart from Nadda, CEC member Rajnath Singh, Shahnawaz Hussain and Nitin Gadkari were also tested positive for Covid-19 recently.

Last day of nomination for 58 Assembly seats, where polling will be held in the first phase, is January 21, while that for 55 seats in the second phase is January 28. Voting will be held on February 10 and February 14 in the first and second phase respectively.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: