LS polls: BJP to announce candidates before 6 months

Lucknow, Mar 18 (UNI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started the preliminary preparations for the Lok Sabha polls and is likely to be ready with the list of its candidates at least six months prior to the election dates, party leader and Central Election Committee member Shanawaz Hussain today said.

''We have started shortlisting the names in about 296 seats of the country, that would be represented by 90 senior BJP leaders,'' he said.

Talking to UNI here, Mr Hussain, who also heads the party's minority cell, claimed that the party was ahead in selecting viable candidates in the seats to be contested by the party.

''After the Union budget became a waterloo for the Congress now BJP has already emerged as a winning party in the LS polls,'' he said while raising the issue of price hike of essential commodities in the country.

''Union Finance Minister tried to adopt the trick of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, but he failed to give any respite to the people,'' he added.

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