The Central Parliamentary Board of the party, which met here on Friday decided to finalize candidates for all Lok Sabha seats in two phases.

However, some of the seats where party either has planned to change the candidates or where some of its senior leaders have staked claim in the post-delimitation scenario would be left out for the time being.

'The Parliamentary Board of the BJP has asked Central Election Committee to finalize candidates for most of the Lok Sabha seats in two phases. The first phase of meetings will be held from January 19 to 21, which would be followed by the second phase to be held on January 28 and 29,' BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said while talking to media persons at the party headquarters.

The National Executive (NE) and National Council (NC) meetings of the party have been fixed from February 6 to 8 in Nagpur. In view of the decision of the Parliamentary Board, the CEC would have to complete its candidate selection exercise before the NE and NC meetings.

The BJP leaders Shanta Kumar and Thawar Chand Gehlot have been appointed as central observers for choosing the leader of the party in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly even though the date for the BJP legislative party meeting has not been decided.

The party has won 11 seats in the recently concluded assembly state in the restive Himalayan state. All seats it bagged are from Jammu region where the party launched an agitation demanding shifting Amarnath land to the shrine board, which led to the consolidation of Hindu voters in the Jammu region.

The Board said it was satisfied with the electoral performance of the party in J&K assembly polls and resolved to work as a nationalist and constructive opposition in the state assembly.#