The BJP, after a marathon meeting of its Central Election Committee chaired by party president JP Nadda, has finalised the list of candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. The party is likely to release its first list of candidates on Wednesday. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur will contest the poll from the Seraj assembly constituency, and it is being said that he will file his nomination papers on Wednesday. The candidates, whose names were stamped in the meeting that lasted till late Tuesday, have also been indicated to prepare for the nomination.
The meeting held at the party headquarters to finalise the names of the candidates was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, party`s national organisation general secretary BL Santosh, Union Ministers Bhupendra Yadav and Sarbananda Sonowal, former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The party leadership, which is targeting to form the government in the state again, discussed the names of candidates for each seat at multiple levels and even conducted different surveys to eliminate the anti-incumbency effect.