- By Vivek Raj
- Sat, 02 Mar 2024 09:33 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Bharatiya Janta Party has disclosed its much anticipated first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. In a press conference from BJP headquarters, the party announced 195 candidates from 16 states and 2 Union Territories. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is once again set to contest from Varanasi.
A total of 34 ministers and two former chief ministers have been included in the list, which also comprises 28 women, 47 leaders below the age of 50, and 57 members from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community.
In addition to Narendra Modi, notable figures featured in the BJP's first list include Kiren Rijiju contesting from Arunachal West, Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh, Manoj Tiwari from North-east Delhi, Sushma Swaraj's daughter Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi, Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar, CR Patil from Navsari, Nishikant Dubey from Godda.
Other prominent candidates include Suresh Gopi from Thrissur, Anil Antony from Pathanamthitta, Rajeev Chandrashekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha.
The other major names include Arjun Meghwal from Bikaner, Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar, Gajendrasingh Sekhawat from Jodhpur, Om Birla from Kota, Bandi Sanjay Kumar from Karimnagar, G Kishen Reddy from Secunderabad.
Among the 195 individuals named, 51 seats are from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 9 seats from Telangana, 11 from Assam, 11 each from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 5 from Delhi, 2 from J&K, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh and 1 each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar and Daman & Diu.
In Mathura, Hema Malini will be contesting, while Bhola Singh will represent Bulandshahr, and Mahesh Sharma will stand for Gautam Budhh Nagar. Ajay Mishra Teni has been nominated for Kheri, Jaiprakash Rawat for Hardoi (ST), and Sakshi Maharaj for Unnao. Rajnath Singh will be vying for the Lucknow seat, while Smriti Irani will contest from Amethi.
Sunder Lal Gupta has been named as the candidate for Pratapgarh, Subhrat Pathak for Kannauj, and Anurag Sharma for Jhansi. RK Singh Patel will represent Banda, Bhupendra Rawat for Barbanki (SC), and Lallu Singh for Faizabad. Raja Bhaiyya will be contesting from Gonda, Ravi Kishan from Gorakhpur, Vijay Kumar Dube from Kushinagar, and Neelam Sonkar from Lalganj (SC). Nirahua will stand for Azamgarh, while Mahendra Nath Pandey will contest from Chandoli.
The first list saw some major changes for Delhi with Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lekhi and Harsh Vardhan being dropped from their respective seats. In Madhya Pradesh, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur got dropped from her Bhopal seat.
The BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) convened on Thursday night under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Modi to deliberate and finalise the initial list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, anticipated to occur in April-May.
Notable attendees included Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gujarat's Bhupendra Patel, and other state leaders. Former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was also present.
The BJP’s announcement of the majority of its candidates well in advance of the Election Commission's official schedule aims to exert pressure on its political rivals, particularly the Congress-led INDIA bloc.
There will be another round of CEC on March 5,6 and 7 to discuss and decide the names of the candidates for the rest of the seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A few names that were discussed in the last meeting will be discussed again in these rounds.
