Delhi election 2020: BJP shortlists over 1400 probable candidates; Shah to take final call

New Delhi, Jan 12: The election committee of the Delhi BJP in its meeting on Saturday, shortlisted more than 1400 names as probable candidates for the 70 Assembly seats in the national capital that will go to polls on February 8.

The meeting held in the evening went on for several hours to screen the names of ticket aspirants, said a member of the election committee. "On an average, 15-25 names have been received from each constituency... More than 1400 names have been shortlisted," he said.

According to reports, BJP president Amit Shah will take the final call on the candidates based on their "winnability".

Another member of the committee said further screening of the names will be done in the next meeting of the panel, and the list will then be sent to the party high command which will announce the finalised names. The process to file nominations will get underway on January 14. The votes will be counted on February 11.

Union minister and BJP in-charge of Delhi polls Prakash Javadekar said the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) is like a family which operates in a democratic manner.

"There are 50 prominent BJP workers in every assembly constituency, that means in 70 assembly constituencies we have almost 3500 workers who have suggested the name of their favourite candidate, now after considering all those names, candidates will be selected for the Delhi Assembly elections," he said in a statement.

The BJP will get full majority in the assembly election and after a long time it will come to power in Delhi, he added. The BJP has been out of power in Delhi since 1998. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the 2015 Assembly elections and the saffron party could manage to win just three seats.