Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Minister and BJP National President J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other leaders during the BJP's Central Election Committee meeting at BJP headquarters, in New Delhi, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024.
PTI
New Delhi: The BJP’s Central Election Committee, its highest decision making body on electoral matters, convened on Tuesday to decide seats for the upcoming polls in Jharkhand. The meeting, which saw the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took place after the schedule for the assembly polls were announced by the Election Commission on Tuesday. The CEC will convene yet again on Wednesday to discuss seats for Maharashtra.
Apart from PM Modi, president J P Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Sarbanada Sonowal were present at the meeting, in addition to other CEC members K Laxman, Satyanarayan Jatiya, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, and Sudha Yadav. There were some special invitees from the state unit including the party's poll in-chare Himanta Biswa Sarma, union minister Annapurna Devi, Arjun Munda, and Champhai Soren, among others.
The party’s poll in-charge for Jharkhand and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday told reporters in Ranchi that the BJP will contest the polls in alliance with the All Jharkhand’s Student Union Party (AJSUP), who will be given anything between 9 to 11 seats. Apart from that Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) will be given two seats.
“The seat sharing arrangement is almost final; discussion with AJSU on only one seat remains now. AJSU will get between 9-11 seats. The JDU will be given two seats, unless some seats are negotiated with the party high command. Chirag Paswan is not in India and he will return on October 16 when the seat sharing will be finalised,” he said.
Sources said that the party is keen on setting aside only one seat for Chirag, and while he was not agreeable, a discussion with Amit Shah is on the anvil. Polling for the 82 seats in the Jharkhand assembly will be held in two phases – on November 13 and November 20. The counting of votes will be held on November 23.