Growing factionalism in the BJP was evident on Monday during the party’s central election committee (CEC) meeting to select candidates for the coming Bihar Assembly polls.
Sources said despite hours of deliberations over candidates names, confusion prevailed over majority of names as each senior leader wanted his list of names to be s
elected. The party is likely to announce the list of candidates on Tuesday when it is also expected to formally announce seat sharing formula with its alliance partner, the JD(U). While the BJP will contest on 102 Assembly seats, its alliance partner JD(U) will contest on 141 Assembly berths. The six-phased Bihar Assembly polls are beginning from October 21.
Party sources said before the CEC met on Monday, senior party leadership, including BJP Bihar unit chief C.P. Thakur, had a meeting with BJP national general secretary and the party’s Bihar unit in-charge Ananth Kumar. The meeting, which began on Sunday night, ended in the early hours of Monday.
However, on majority of seats the confusion over names continued, sources said. Moreover, both Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi and Dr C.P. Thakur wanted their candidates to be finalised. This factionalism was also evident during the CEC meeting when both Mr Modi and Dr Thakur were trying hard for their candidates names to be selected, sources said.
Sources further disclosed with the party leadership of the view that new faces should be given a chance this time, it is expected that around 25 to 30 per cent candidates will be fresh faces. Speculation had been rife in the party circles that some of the state unit leaders, who had revolted against Mr Modi few years back, are unlikely to get tickets for the coming assembly polls. Also, the party is thinking of disallowing those who had won last Assembly polls by a narrow margin.
“For one Assembly seat, there are six to seven names suggested by the state leadership as well as the central leadership,” said a senior party functionary.