BJP’s poll body holds meet to finalise candidates for J&K assembly polls

New Delhi: The BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) met here on Sunday evening to finalise the party’s candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president J P Nadda were joined by other CEC members, including Home Minister Amit Shah, as they deliberated with party leaders from the Union territory.

Sources said the leaders held deliberations for party candidates for over 50 seats in the UT.

Last week, the J&K leaders had held a long meeting with Nadda and Shah, among others, to narrow down the list of probable candidates and strategise for the polls.

Another CEC meeting is likely to be held later this week to finalise names of candidates for the Haryana polls.

The 90-member assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is going to the polls in three phases on September 18 and 25 and October 1.

The 90-member assembly of Haryana will go to the elections on October 1.

The counting of votes is scheduled for October 4.

In the last assembly elections held in 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state, the BJP had won 25 seats.

The party is making all out efforts to fend off the challenge from a resurgent Congress, which has tied up with the National Conference, especially in the Jammu region, a BJP bastion since 2014.

The BJP is also facing a strong challenge from the Congress in Haryana where it is in power since 2014.