Ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls by the Election Commission next month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to reveal names of 100 candidates on February 29, including two to three names from Odisha.
The information was shared by BJP’s Odisha election in-charge, Vijaypal Singh Tomar who arrived in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
Speaking to the media, Tomar said, “We will have meetings today and tomorrow and discuss election preparations. We will focus on implementation of all the Central schemes in Odisha. Out of the 100 seats, there will be names for two to three seats in Odisha too.”
Asked about the rumoured tie-up with the BJD, Tomar said, “I cannot comment on that. It is a matter of Central leadership to decide. But as far as I know, we are ready to fight in all the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. We will achieve an absolute majority in both MP and Assembly elections.”
In the seven-phase general elections held between April 11 and May 19, 2019, the BJP won 303 seats with a record 37.36 percent vote share, the highest vote share by a political party since the 1989 general election. Overall, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 353 seats. The Congress won 52 seats while the United Progressive Alliance won 91 seats in the election.
For the 2024 polls, the BJP has identified 160 seats that the party deems weak and thus organised early campaigning and public contact programmes over the past one year, according to the ET report.