BJP's poll body meets to finalise candidates for Haryana assembly polls

The BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) met here on Thursday evening to finalise the party's candidates for the Haryana Assembly polls to be held on October 1.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda were among other CEC members who deliberated on the probable list of party nominees for the state elections.

Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, who is also party in-charge for elections in Haryana, and Manohar Lal Khattar and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini were also present at the meeting.

The meeting, which took place at the BJP headquarters, lasted for more than two hours.

Earlier in the day, senior BJP leaders, including Shah, Pradhan and Khattar, met at Nadda's residence here and held an extensive discussion on the names of probable candidates sent from the state.

Haryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli was also present at the party's core group meeting at Nadda's residence.

Before this, Pradhan held a meeting with the Haryana BJP leaders at his residence.

After the BJP core group meeting, senior party leader and former Haryana home minister Anil Vij said the party's state team apprised the central team of the political scenario in the state.

"Our party is a democratic party...Now the Central Election Committee will take a final call (on the probable candidates for assembly polls)," he told reporters.

The 90-member Haryana Assembly is set to go to polls on October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 4.

In the last assembly polls, the BJP had emerged as the single largest party and formed a coalition government in a post-poll alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party. However, the BJP-JJP alliance broke earlier this year just before the Lok Sabha polls.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and the Congress won five seats each of the 10 seats in Haryana.