Today in Politics: BJP, Congress poll panel meetings likely to discuss second list; SBI plea in SC

Both the BJP and the Congress’s central election committees are expected to meet on Monday to deliberate on the second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

Sources said the BJP CEC meeting is likely to begin around 5 pm. After its first meeting on March 2, the BJP released a list of 195 candidates. Discussions on 150 seats are likely to be held on Monday following which a second list of candidates will be finalised, according to sources.

The BJP’s first list included 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, nine from Telangana, 11 each from Assam, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, five from Delhi, three from Uttarakhand, two each from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, and one each from Goa, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu. It also replaced as many as 33 sitting MPs with new faces.

The Congress, in comparison, released only 39 names in its first list last Friday and the names of candidates from Uttar Pradesh are likely to be discussed on Monday. Earlier, Manoj CG reported that Rahul Gandhi might contest again from Amethi, which he lost to Union Minister Smriti Irani in 2019 while there is suspense over the electoral debut of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Raebareli, a seat her mother Sonia Gandhi has represented in the Lok Sabha since 2004.

Related to the elections, more importantly, the Election Commission (EC) is scheduled to hold a meeting of all its observers — the police, general, and expenditure observers — on Monday. After the briefing in Delhi, the observers, numbering almost 2,000, will be sent to their constituencies. The EC is also expected to Srinagar for its review of