BJP to accord warm welcome to PM Modi at party headquarters

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be accorded a rousing welcome at the BJP headquarters here on Wednesday evening when he arrives to attend its central election committee meeting, party leaders said. This will be Modi's first visit to the party office after he chaired the G20 summit here last weekend, which has been seen as a hugely successful event with his leadership drawing praise from world leaders.

The BJP has often highlighted the global recognition of his leadership and India's enhanced stature at the international level in its political discourse, an issue which is likely to rise in salience following the G20 meeting. The central election will meet to deliberate on the party's candidates for the upcoming state polls. Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, and party president J P Nadda besides other senior leaders are the members of the CEC. They may decide the names of candidates for the polls in Madhya Pradesh.

Sources said Chhattisgarh was also on the CEC agenda earlier but it may now take up the candidate selection in Madhya Pradesh only. The CEC had met last month and named candidates for 39 seats for the polls in Madhya Pradesh and 21 for Chhattisgarh. These were for the seats where the BJP does not have incumbent MLAs. In a departure from its practice, the BJP has this time begun naming its assembly poll candidates long before the dates for the elections are to be announced.

Assembly polls are due in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram in November-December, the last round of state elections before the Lok Sabha contest in 2024. The BJP is in power in Madhya Pradesh while the Congress is in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The BRS is in power in Telangana while the Mizo National Front runs the government in Mizoram.