The BJP’s Jharkhand election committee was on Wednesday taken aback when it received an application from one of its own worker seeking ticket to contest from chief minister Raghubar Das’ assembly constituency Jamshedpur (East).
No one, however, sought a ticket for Khunti assembly segment, which is currently represented by rural development minister Neelkant Singh Munda. The maximum number of claimants came from Daltonganj and Garhwa constituencies, BJP sources said, adding, about 10-12 applications were received against most of the sitting MLAs.
Sources, however, refused to divulge the name of aspirant who wants to contest from the CM’s seat.
The ruling BJP has expedited the process of selection of candidates in the run-up to the five-phase assembly elections, nomination for which begun on Wednesday for the first phase.
The committee on Wednesday discussed at length about the prospect of over 200 probable candidates wanting to contest elections on party’s ticket from different assembly constituencies.
After a long deliberation, it authorised CM Das, party’s state president Laxman Gilua and general secretary (organisation) Dharmpal Singh to prepare the list of probable candidates for the 81 assembly segments and forward it to the central election committee.
Besides, Das, Gilua, and Singh, Union minister Arjun Munda, state election incharge Om Prakash Mathur, joint general secretary (organisation) Saudan Singh and other senior leaders attended the state election committee meet.
“The CM will fly to Delhi on Thursday along with the list of probable candidates. Many senior leaders and parliamentarians have already left for Delhi to participate in the central election committee meet on Thursday to finalise the list,” said a senior BJP leader.
“A preliminary meeting was held. Discussions will go on further. The organisation will formally announce its alliance with AJSU party soon and publish the list of its candidates for all the phases in one go,” said Union minister and party leader Arjun Munda.
“The election committee had received lists of probable candidates from different sources. It discussed on every minute details related to the proposed candidates. Opinions were also drawn from party workers,” Deepak Prakash, BJP’s state general secretary, told media persons.
“Now, the trio’s panel will prepare the list for final approval of the central election committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party’s national president Amit Shah, working president JP Nadda and many other senior leaders as its members,” he added.
As per the election schedule, the state will go for polls in five phases on November 30 for 13 assembly segments, December 7 for 20 assembly constituencies, December 12 for 17 seats, December 16 for 15 seats and December 20 for 16 constituencies. Counting of votes will take place on December 23.