The Gujarat Assembly Elections are barely a month away and the BJP, which has won five successive elections in Gujarat, and has been in power for the last 22 years, seem to be a bit nervous to declare candidates.

BJP Party’s Central Election Committee meeting that lasted for three hours was held in Delhi which was chaired by PM Modi and attended by BJP Party President Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Gujarat’s Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, BJP state in-charge Bhupender Yadav and state BJP president Jitu Vaghani. Sources said the list has been finalised by PM Modi and shall be declared at an appropriate time.

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It is noteworthy that this is the first time in 22 years that the BJP has not declared the candidate list after the CEC meeting. In all the previous years, the list had been declared immediately after the Central Election Committee meeting was over. The BJP is visibly anxious and is playing safe with its candidate list and is waiting for the Congress Party to declare its candidate list first.

BJP might make modifications in their candidate list after Congress declares its candidates. Candidates have already started filling in the nomination forms for the Phase 1 of the Gujarat Assembly Elections. The last date to file nominations for the Phase 1 is 21 November. Many sitting MLAs are skeptical of getting a ticket this time. Data shows that during Narendra Modi’s Chief Ministerial ship of Gujarat in 2007 and 2012, he had denied tickets to 47 and 30 sitting MLAs, respectively.

There is a probability that the candidate list that has already been sent to the national parliamentary board will be declared tomorrow on 17 November.