New Delhi, Jan 13: Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday claimed the BJP will secure a landslide victory in the state Assembly polls.

Talking to mediapersons after the conclusion of the party's Central Election Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said discussions were held on 172 seats, polling for which will be held in three phases. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: BJP Finalises Candidates For 172 Seats in UP; CM Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya Likely to Contest.

He said that the saffron party is going to get a huge mandate in 2022, more than it got in 2017.

The party's first list of selected candidates is expected to be released on Friday.

A total of 172 candidates have been finalised for three of the seven-phase polls in the state.

Polling for the first, second and third phase will be held on February 10, 14 and 20 on 58, 55 and 59 seats respectively.

As per information accessed by IANS, in the party's first list, only the names of the candidates for the first and second phase of the polls will be announced.

A total of 113 seats will go to the polls in the first and second phase. As part of the strategy, the party will announce the names of 95 candidates in the first list and for the rest of the 18 seats after a few days.

The last date for filing nominations for the first phase for 58 seats is January 21 while for the second phase of polls on 55 seats, it is January 28.

For the first time, the saffron party held a hybrid meeting which was attended virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, election in-charge and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, General Secretary (organisation) B.L. Santhosh joined it physically at the headquarters in the national capital.

Party national President J.P. Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari attended the meet virtually as they were Covid-19 positive.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 13, 2022 05:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).