BJP Releases 1st List Of 195 Candidates For LS Polls; PM Modi To Contest From Varanasi, Amit Shah from Gandhinagar

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posted on 7 months ago — updated on 1 second ago

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PM Modi, late on Thursday, had chaired a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) to deliberate upon the first list of candidates for the upcoming LS polls

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi for a third time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced on Saturday, releasing a list of 195 candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been fielded from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar once again, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will fight from his seat, Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh, according to the list that has 34 federal ministers. Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani is the BJP’s pick from Amethi, an erstwhile Congress stronghold where she pulled off a sensational victory over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2019.

Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, has been given the New Delhi seat, while former Assam Chief Minsiter Sarbananda Sonowal will fight from the eastern state’s Dibrugarh seat.

Five years ago, the BJP contested 436 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. The announcement of Saturday’s 195 seats meant the BJP has already declared almost 40% of the 2019 number. Also, in 2019, the BJP’s first list of 180-odd candidates came out on March 21 — more than 10 days after the announcement of the election schedule.

This time around, it came before the big announcement, showing that the party wants to aggressively work towards achieving its goal of 370 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.

Of the seats announced on Saturday, 51 are from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal and five from Delhi. The list has 28 woman leaders and 47 candidates under the age of 50. BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde read it out to reporters.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has been fielded from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram. Another central minister, Kiren Rijiju, will fight from Arunachal West. Jitendra Singh is the candidate from Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya is the BJP candidate from Gujarat’s Porbandar. Minister of State Arjun Munda will contest from Khunti (ST) in Jharkhand.

In Uttar Pradesh, Hema Malini is the BJP’s candidate from Mathura. Sakshi Maharaj will fight from Unnao and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur. In Rajasthan, Arjun Ram Meghwal will contest from Bikaner (SC) and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from Kota. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna in Madhya Pradesh and former Chief Minsiter Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha.

Some of the notable names in West Bengal are Nisith Pramanik, who will fight from the Cooch Behar (SC) seat; Sukanta Majumdar, who is the Balurghat pick; and Shantanu Thakur, who has been fielded from Bangaon (SC), among others.

HOW MANY SEATS IN EACH STATE