Rama Krishna Sangem
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of BJP parliamentary board to finalize first list of MP candidates till 4 am on March 1, Friday. The meeting started at 10.45 pm on Thursday and went on for full four hours.Of course, with him were other top BJP leaders Rajath Singh, Amit Shah and other members of parliamentary board.
Though it is not uncommon for politicians in New Delhi to sit on meetings till late in the midnight or wee hours, this is the first time PM Modi was in a party meeting till 4 am, sources say. This shows the importance he is attaching to finalization of party candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections. The party is expected to come up with a list of not less than 100 names at anytime from March 1.
Modi, Amit Shah and FM Nirmala Sitharaman are expected to be in the first list. There will be subsequent lists before Election Commission announces election schedule on March 13 or 14. A majority of sitting MPs are given tickets, but around 70 of them out of the total 303 may not be fielded again. All those who won for third time or of the above 75 years of age too would be dropped.
Taking extra care &d pain
Modi at t he age of 74 is taking this much of pain to see that nothing goes wrong this time, his prestigious third time attempt to come back to power at the centre. He is t he final decision making authority of MP candidates this time. But, he takes inputs form Amit Shah and other senior party leaders. the 11 member parliamentary board and the central election committee too are involved in the exercise.
2 BRS MPs join BJP
Within two days, two BRS MPs from Telangana joined BJP. They are: P Ramulu from Nagar Kuarnool (SC) and BB Patil from Zaheerabad. If Ramulu’s son Bharat Prasad has been shortlisted for the ticket from his father’s seat, Patil too is being fielded again from his seat. This joining of sitting MPs from BRS comes as a boost to BJP which is keen on bagging majority of 17 LS seats from Telangana this time.
