BJP sounds bugle, announces first list of candidates

The Bharatiya Janata Party has commenced the countdown for the UPA government by sounding the poll bugle Thursday with announcing the first list of candidates for the forthcoming 15th Lok Sabha polls, scheduled for next year.

"The countdown to the end of UPA rule has begun from today. Our Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani would be contesting from the Gandhinagar parliamentary seat," said the party general secretary Anant Kumar while announcing the first list of candidates at the party headquarters here today.

Senior party leader and the prime ministerial candidate Advani will contest the election from the Gandhinagar seat in Gujarat, while Navjot Singh Sidhu will fray from Amritsar and actor and MP Vinod Khanna will contest the poll from the Gurdaspur constituency. The party also announced the name of other three contestants-Shripad Y Naik (Panaji), Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur) and TPS Rawat (Pauri).

The decision was taken at the meeting of the Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party headed by the national president Rajnath Singh, and L.K. Advani, Hon'ble Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha). The other senior members of the Committee- Venkiah Naidu, Murli Manohar Joshi, Vinay Katiyar, Anant Kumar and Sushma Swaraj besides others were also present at the meeting.

The CEC meeting was followed by the meeting of the Central Election Management Committee and the party's core group.

While asked about the declaration of list of candidates so early when the current Lok Sabha still existing and the elections are away some months, the senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu stated that the party had initiated the process so that the people and the states could understand the seriousness and the intention of the central party. This would be signal for the state BJP to start preparing for the Lok Sabha elections, he added.

The party plans to announce all seats by the end of August and the state units have been asked to send their inputs on candidate selection by then.

The reason for the early declaration of list is also being seen in the uncertainty over the nuclear deal and the Left's constant threat to the UPA to withdraw its support in case the government goes for the deal, which can cause snap polls.