The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will finalise the candidate for Lok Sabha polls from Puducherry in a day or two.
As part of shortlisting the candidates, a series of meetings were held at the BJP office on Friday.
BJP in-charge for Puducherry, Nirmal Kumar Surana, held meetings with functionaries of five divisions of the party units in the Union Territory. He also chaired a core committee meeting.
Apart from Mr. Surana, Speaker R. Selvam, Minister for Civil Supplies A.K. Sai J. Saravanan Kumar, party president and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) S. Selvaganabathy, former party president V. Saminathan and BJP MLAs attended the meeting.
Mr. Surana told The Hindu that consultations with local leadership will conclude on Friday. “The name will be shortlisted after the meetings on Friday. After consulting Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, the name will be forwarded to party Central leadership on Monday for approval. The candidate will be announced only with the approval of the Chief Minister,” he said.
Party sources said the candidate could be a party heavyweight holding a key Ministry at the Centre or a prominent local leader. The names of two Ministers in the the Puducherry Cabinet, and an Independent supporting the BJP, are being considered, sources said.
