The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to release its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday. Senior party leaders on Saturday deliberated on finalising the names of candidates for the upcoming polls, particularly for constituencies where polling will be held in the first phase.
The names were discussed at the party's central election committee attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party Amit Shah.
Sources said the discussion was held on seats in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttarakhand and the seven northeastern states.
The Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23.
There is a lot of confusion and speculation over the names of candidates in Bihar where the BJP has agreed to contest 17 seats despite having 22 Lok Sabha members from the state. The meeting, which ended around 2 am on Sunday, was also attended by Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi and party's state unit chief Nityanand Rai.
Among those who will be dropped is sitting MP from Patna Sahib Shatrughan Sinha, a rebel, who is likely to be replaced by Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Prasad's name was discussed in the BJP's central election committee on Saturday.
Shatrughan Sinha has been critical of the party's top leadership on several occasions in the past. Deliberations continued till late in the night and the name of Rajya Sabha MP R K Sinha was also discussed for the Patna Sahib seat.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh who won the last election from Nawada is likely to be shifted to Begusarai. Nawada seat has gone into the kitty of Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party.
Former minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, an MP from Saran, is likely to be shifted to Chapra, reports suggested. Sanjay Jaiswal from Western Champaran.
Among those who were vying for tickets but are likely to be snubbed by the party is Shahnawaz Hussain, BJP's Muslim face in Bihar. Hussain contested 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Bhagalpur, a seat which has a substantial Muslim population. This seat has gone into JD(U)'s quota.