Ranchi: The three-member panel, authorized by the BJP’s state election committee, has prepared a list of nearly 40 probable Lok Sabha candidates, which would be forwarded to the central high command for final selection, party sources said on Saturday.

The BJP, which has entered into an alliance with All Jharkhand Student’s Union (AJSU) party, and also parted away with its stronghold Giridih seat, has to select candidates for 13 parliamentary constituencies in Jharkhand.

The party’s state election committee in its Friday meeting had authorized chief minister Raghubar Das, party’s state president Laxman Gilua and general secretary (organization) Dharmpal Singh to prepare the list of probable candidates for 13 Lok Sabha seats for forwarding it to the central election committee.

“The trio’s panel has chalked out the list which figures nearly 40 names of probable candidates. Our state president Gilua and general secretary (organization) Singh will fly to Delhi on Sunday. CM Das will also go but his itinerary is yet to be prepared. All the three leaders will participate in the central election committee meet on March 18 to finalize the list,” said a BJP leader.

As per the election schedule, Jharkhand will go for polls in four phases on April 29 for three Lok Sabha constituencies (Chatra, Palamu and Lohardaga), May 6 for four seats (Ranchi, Khunti, Hazaribag and Koderma), May 12 for four seats (Giridih, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur and Singhbhum) and May 19 for three constituencies (Godda, Dumka and Rajmahal).

Sources said that the list prepared by the panel headed by the CM contained the names of all sitting MPs besides other names. It has been learnt that for Ranchi parliamentary constituency, the list contained the names of sitting MP Ramtahal Choudhary, Aditya Sahu and Deepak Prakash. Names of Sunil Soren, Jharkhand minister Louis Marandi figure in the list for Dumka, Sunil Singh and Sudesh Verma have been selected for Chatra, Ravindra Rai and Neera Yadav for Koderma and others.

Sources said party’s state president and organization secretary to fly to Delhi Sunday with the list for final selection of candidates by central election committee, which is likely to meet on March 18 to finalise the list.

‘BJP will not resort to negative campaign, go with development plank’

Chief minister Raghubar Das on Saturday held meeting with party’s spokespersons and media wing and appealed them to desist from negative campaigning and asked them to go into the polls with party’s development plank.

He asked them to make people aware about the various development works done by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting was also attended by the State’s joint in-charge Ramvichar Netaam, state Lok Sabha in-charge Mangal Pandey and general secretary (organization) Dharmpal Singh.

The party has also selected spokespersons for parliamentary constituencies in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Pradeep Sinha and Prem Mittal will be spokespersons for Ranchi constituency, Shivpujan Pathak and Pratul Shahdeo for Palamu, Chatra and Lohardaga constituencies, JB Tubid and Rajesh Kumar Shukla for Singhbhum and Jamshedpur constituencies, Pravin Prabhakar for Godda, Rajmahal and Dumka seat, Sabarmal Agarwal for Hazaribag and Deendayal Barnwal for Dhanbad.

First Published: Mar 17, 2019 09:15 IST