Jharkhand CM meets Amit Shah to finalise candidates for Assembly polls

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and other senior state party leaders on Thursday met BJP president Amit Shah at his residence here to finalise the list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections.

Apart from Das, the meeting was attended by Jharkhand BJP president Laxman Gilua, election in-charge O P Mathur and election co-in-charge Ram Vichar Netam along with the Union Minister from the state Arjun Munda.

The meeting, which began around 6 pm, concluded in the early hours of Friday.

Ahead of the scheduled meeting with Shah, senior party leaders had managed to bring down the number of prospective candidates on each seat from 15 to five.

"We can't go unprepared. Even if we have brought down the candidates to 15 to 5 or 10 to 4, Adhyaksh Ji would be sitting there with his data on every seat. There is no scope of pushing one's candidacy without merit," a senior BJP leader said.

Earlier, in the day, a core group had met for deliberations on the candidates. Several MPs were also invited for the same.

A senior party leader said that names from workers from each Mandal and district and Members of Parliament were considered while shortlisting the names.

The 81-member Jharkhand assembly is set to go for a five-phased election from November 30 to December 20. The counting of votes will take place on December 23.