Patna: Under attack from rivals within
the party, senior BJP leader and deputy Chief Minister Sushil
Kumar Modi Sunday said selection of candidates for the 102
seats the party was contesting in alliance with another NDA
ally, JD(U), was “a collective decision”.
"BJP is a national party and its style of functioning
and other related important decisions are taken collectively,"
Modi clarified.
Stating that a wider process was adopted for the
selection of candidates by the BJP for 2010 Bihar Assembly
polls, Modi revealed that the 18-member state election
committee was involved in searching for candidates keeping in
mind their winnability factor.
"Accordingly, the committee suggested a panel of four
prospective candidates and authorised the seven member Core
Committee to take further step for final decision," he said.
Modi said he later produced a list of one candidate
each for the 60 seats and a panel of two prospective
candidates for the rest 42 seats to the central parliamentary
board and the board comprising the party national president
Nitin Gadkari, former deputy prime minister LK Advani,
besides top leaders Sushma Swarj, Rajnath Singh and others
approved the first list of 87 candidates.
For the rest 15 seats, the board
authorised Gadkari to take a decision and the BJP president in
consultation with leaders approved the names of 13 more
candidates.
On the seat-sharing arrangement with the JD(U), a
consensus was evolved within the party for 99 and for the rest
two of the seats, the matter was referred to the central
committee, he said while seeking to silence his critics that
he had adopted an arbitrary attitude towards allocation and
allotment of tickets.
State BJP president CP Thakur and a section of
other party leaders had recently, without naming Modi, alleged
that "they have been ignored in the decision making procession
for distribution of seats and allotment of party tickets".
PTI
