BJP Releases 1st List Of Candidates For LS Polls, PM To Fight From Varanasi For 3rd Time

Mumbai: The BJP today declared its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. As many as 34 Union ministers have been included in the list.

PM Narendra Modi will contest elections from Varanasi for the third time, while Home Minister Amit Shah will fight from Gandhinagar. The list features 51 candidates for Uttar Pradesh seats.

Of 195 candidates, 34 are Ministers from the Centre and States while two are former Chief Ministers who are on the list.

“PM Modi to contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiran Rijiju to contest from Arunachal West, BJP MP Bishnu Pada Ray to contest from Andaman & Nicobar, BJP MP Tapir Gao to contest from Arunachal East, and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to contest from Dibrugarh,” stated BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde while announcing the first list.

Mansukh Mandaviya is running from Porbandar, while Home Minister Amit Shah is running from Gandhinagar.

“195 candidates’ names have been decided upon. There are 57 OBC/Backward Class candidates, 27 Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, 28 woman candidates, and 47 youth candidates on the list. There are also 18 Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates. Leader of the BJP Vinod Tawde told the media in Delhi, “The party has announced the list keeping all communities in focus.”  

Rajeev Chandrashekhar, a union minister, will run from Thiruvananthapuram, in Kerala. Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju of Arunachal Pradesh and Sarbananda Sonowal of Dibrugarh will seek for office.  

Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of the late Sushma Swaraj, the former minister of external affairs, has been nominated from New Delhi.

Union Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh will run from Lucknow, while Smriti Irani will run from Amethi once more.  

Ajay Mishra Teni of MOS Home will face off against Khiri once more. Former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan will run from Vidisha, while BJP leader Alok Sharma will run from Bhopal.  

Jyotiraditya Scindia, a 2020 BJP convert from the Congress, is running from Guna, Madhya Pradesh.  

The BJP also released its candidates for the five Delhi Lok Sabha seats. Manoj Tiwari, the head of the BJP, will run from North-East Delhi. Bansuri Swara, the late leader Sushma Swaraj’s daughter, will run from New Delhi. Ramvir Singh Bidhuri is running from South Delhi, while Kamaljeet Sehrawat is running from West Delhi.

Chief of the Confederation of All India Traders Praveen Khandelwal will run from Chandni Chowk in Delhi. Pragya Singh Thakur was removed from the team. The BJP’s central election committee (CEC) held a lengthy discussion in the wee hours of Friday before announcing the candidate list.  

Present at the meeting were Chief Ministers, State Presidents, JP Nadda, the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Organization General Secretary BL Santosh, and In-charges, Co-Incharges, and Election In-charges of several states.  

Attending the meeting were the chief ministers of Goa, Uttarakhand, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.  

Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi defeated Congressman Ajay Rai in Varanasi with 6,74,664 votes.  

With 303 seats gained overall, the BJP-led National Democratic (NDA) defeated the historic party with 52 seats. This year’s Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for April and May.

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