How to prevent disagreements

Amit Shah will finalise the rest of the list after informal consultations with the leaders concerned

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced 300-plus candidates for the 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. The party’s central election committee, comprising its top leaders, held two marathon meetings to decide the candidates. The meetings were not without disagreements, which delayed the release of the list of candidates. The BJP has decided not to hold more meetings of the central election committee; the candidature for the rest of the seats will be decided by BJP President Amit Shah. Most of these 100 or so seats are around the Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi and some others fall within the party’s Hindutva leader, Yogi Adityanath’s constituency, Gorakhpur. There is talk at the party headquarters that the leadership wants to prevent more disagreements, and that the party chief will finalise the rest of the list after informal consultations with the leaders concerned.