BJP CEC meeting today; key decisions on MP, Chhattisgarh likely

New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) The BJP has called a meeting of its Central Election Committee (CEC) at the party headquarters here on Wednesday in view of the upcoming Assembly elections.

The meeting will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP National President J.P. Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, along with all the CEC members.

According to sources, the party high command may take some major decisions regarding the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections to be held by the end of the year.

In general, the party CEC meeting is called to discuss the names of the probable candidates for the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Such meetings are usually called only after the election dates are announced by the Election Commission, but surprisingly this time the party has called the CEC meeting at a time when the election dates are yet to be disclosed. 

However, sources said that during the CEC meeting, there will be a brainstorm over the seats on which the party is in a weaker position in these two states.

Sources added that the party wants to finalise the names of candidates for these vulnerable seats in advance. However, their names would not be revealed publicly immediately.

As per the sources, these selected candidates will be informed by the party about the finalisation of their names and would be instructed to commence their poll campaign so that by the time election schedules are announced, they would have a lead over the candidates of rival parties.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and state BJP chief V.D. Sharma, along with Chhattisgarh BJP chief Arun Sao and other party leaders from these two states associated with election campaigns may also attend the CEC meeting.