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Thursday, Nov 02, 2006
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BJP presidential poll schedule this month

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A time-table for the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party president is expected to be announced by mid-November, when organisational polls would be complete in more than 50 per cent of all states in the country.

Issues related to organisational polls apparently figured at a meeting of the party's core committee at the residence of the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar later told reporters that matters related to consensus-building for presidential polls in States were discussed and by mid-November the party should be ready to conduct the presidential poll at the national level. The returning officer for the election, O.P. Kohli, would announce the time-table. The electoral college consists of 542 members of the national council, Mr. Javadekar said.

Senior party leaders have been indicating for some time that the election of current president Rajnath Singh for a full three-year term was almost certain. Under the party constitution a person cannot hold this office for two consecutive tenures. When the last time the party constitution was amended the clause allowing two two-year consecutive tenures was changed to one three-year tenure.

However, Mr. Singh, who became party president as a result of a vacancy caused by L.K. Advani's resignation early this year, was eligible for a full-three year tenure as the current tenure was a result of a mid-term vacancy.

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