The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to announce its candidates for the Punjab assembly elections, due early next year, by the first week of December, well ahead of the polls expected to be held in February next year, as the party steps up preparations to expand its electoral footprint in the state.
National general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh, who concluded his two-day visit to Punjab on Tuesday evening, directed the party’s state general secretaries to begin identifying probable candidates for all 117 assembly constituencies.
The decision is also understood to have been influenced by the BJP’s experience in West Bengal, where the party had announced candidates well ahead of the polls, allowing them more time for constituency-level preparations and campaigning. Santosh gave the directions during a closed-door meeting with the state general secretaries in Amritsar. Party leaders believe that announcing candidates early could give them additional time to establish contact with voters, strengthen their constituency-level organisation and mount a sustained campaign. Interestingly, there was no substantive discussion on the alliance question during Santosh’s meetings with the state leadership, despite speculation about a possible alliance ahead of the Punjab polls.
A senior party functionary said that during his two-day visit, Santosh referred only twice to the need for the state leadership to prepare for contesting all 117 seats. “Throughout the two-day tour of the national general secretary (organisation), he said just twice that the state leadership should make preparations to contest polls on all 117 seats. Santosh emphasised the need to declare candidates well in advance so that they have sufficient time to prepare their constituencies and campaign among voters, according to a state general secretary who attended the meeting.
There was no clarity on the alliance issue,” the general secretary said.
