In a first, Amit Shah himself taking bio-data of Lok Sabha ticket aspirants

New Delhi [India], Mar 14 (ANI): In a first, BJP president Amit Shah is himself receiving applications from the aspirants of party tickets for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, beginning April 11 in seven phases.

Many political parties including the Congress and the SP-BSP alliance have started declaring their candidates for the Lok Sabha seats, but the BJP has not yet come out with any list of candidates. The Congress party has come out with two lists of candidates so far.

According to sources, the BJP president, which won 282 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections, does not to take any risks and hence he himself is vetting all applications.

Before the party's top bodies-Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee (CEC)-meet, Shah wants to have a fair idea of ticket seekers and also to ensure that genuine ones are not left out, sources said.

Regarding the selection of candidates, many theories are doing rounds in the corridors of BJP's grand central office in the national capital. It is being said that the party high command is planning to drop almost 40 per cent sitting MPs.

This has left a large number of party workers enthused, who have thronged the party headquarters from across the country and are sharing their constituencies' electoral permutations and combinations with the senior leaders in a bid to convince them to get the ticket.

"However, to ensure that workers do not stay put in the national capital in the hope of getting tickets, and waste their precious time when the process for the crucial poll has begun, Amit Shah is himself taking bio-data from them," said sources.

On Wednesday and Thursday morning, he took the applications from them at the party office in the morning. "This is perhaps for the first time in the history of BJP that the party president is directly accepting applications from the ticket seekers," said a party functionary, who did not wish to be identified.