Barring four seats that were left unnamed for "strategic reasons", the BJP on Friday released the entire list of candidates for Chhattisgarh.
The party's central election committee wanted to wait for chief minister Ajit Jogi's nomination from Marwahi before naming its nominee. The BJP is exploring various options to ensure that Jogi has a tough time in his home constituency.
BJP sources did not rule out the possibility of senior leader Dilip Singh Judev contesting one of the four seats for which candidates have not been finalised. The BJP's second list for Chhattisgarh had 14 names, including former minister Baliram Kashyap's son, Kedar Kashyap, for the Bhanpuri (ST) constituency.
Friday’s list has six Scheduled Tribes, one Scheduled Caste and a woman. Of the 86 candidates finalised by the party's election committee so far, 10 belong to the Scheduled Caste, 34 to the Scheduled Tribe and six women.
Those who attended the election committee meeting on Friday included LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh and party general secretaries Pramod Mahajan, Sanjay Joshi and Naqvi.