Manipur chief minister Biren Singh on Friday led a contingent of state BJP leaders to New Delhi even as the time is inching closer for the saffron party to release its list of candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
According to sources, chief minister N Biren and works minister Thongam Bishwajit, BJP Manipur Pradesh secretary (Organization) Premananda Meetei have rushed to the national capital on Friday to attend a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary board to be held on Saturday to finalize the list of BJP candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
According to reports, the leaders left for New Delhi following a summon by the party’s national leadership to discuss and finalize the list of BJP candidates for Manipur.
BJP state unit president MP Ksh Bhavananda, who was in Guwahati, has also reached New Delhi to attend the meeting.
After the much anticipated meeting on Saturday, where BJP national president Amit Shah and prime minister Narendra Modi are expected to be present, the party is likely to announce the list of candidates by late Saturday evening or on Sunday.
The state leadership had earlier held series of meetings to shortlist names from the intending candidates to fight the two parliamentary seats in Manipur.
Altogether 16 aspiring candidates in the Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency are vying for BJP tickets while 10 aspiring candidates in the Outer seat.
Chief minister N Biren and party president Ksh Bhavananda had earlier attended a meeting of NEDA held in Guwahati earlier this week with BJP national secretary Ram Madhav who is also the party in-charge for the Northeast.
Manipur has two Lok Sabha Seats – Outer Manipur parliamentary constituency and Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency. Election notification for Outer and Inner Parliamentary constituencies will be issued on March 18 and March 19 respectively. Last of Submission of the nomination form is March 25 and March 26.