BJP releases first candidate record, PM Modi to contest from Varanasi

The Bharatiya Janata Celebration on Saturday launched its first record of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest the polls from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi seat, which he has represented since 2014, the celebration stated. Union House Minister Amit Shah will contest from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, a seat he received in 2019.

In Uttar Pradesh, the celebration has given the election ticket to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from his conventional Lucknow seat. Celebration chief Smriti Irani will once more contest from Amethi, the place she defeated Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in 2019. The celebration retained Hema Malini as its candidate in Mathura and Ajay Mishra Teni in Kheri.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will combat from the state’s Vidhisha Lok Sabha seat, celebration Common Secretary Vinod Tawde stated. Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has been fielded from Guna, a seat he held between 2002 and 2019.

In Bhopal, the Hindutva celebration changed its MP Pragya Thakur with Alok Sharma. In Might 2019, Thakur had referred to as Mahatma Gandhi’s murderer Nathuram Godse a patriot. Whereas she later apologised following criticism from the Opposition and her personal celebration, Modi had stated he would by no means be capable of forgive Thakur for her feedback.

Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of late BJP chief Sushma Swaraj, will contest from the New Delhi constituency. Praveen Khadelwal was picked as a substitute of former Union minister Harsh Vardhan within the nationwide capital’s Chandni Chowk constituency.

The celebration fielded its MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri within the South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency as a substitute of Ramesh Bidhuri. In September, Ramesh Bidhuri had used communal slurs towards a Muslim MP Danish Ali throughout a debate within the Lok Sabha on the success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will contest the polls from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram constituency, which is presently held by Congress chief Shashi Tharoor. Anil Antony, the son of Congress chief AK Anthony, who joined the BJP in April 2023 will combat from the Pathanamthitta seat within the southern state.

Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya has been given an election ticket from Gujarat’s Porbandar. Whereas Shantanu Thakur will contest from West Bengal’s Bongaon, Kiren Rijiju will combat the polls from the Arunachal West constituency. Thakur and Rijiju, each Union ministers, presently maintain the seats they’ve been given an election ticket from.

Former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal will contest the polls from Dibrugarh.

The celebration retained Jitendra Singh in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur and Jugal Kishore Sharma in Jammu. It didn’t announce its candidates for the seats in Kashmir.

The record included 34 Union ministers, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and two former chief ministers.

The Election Fee is but to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, the mannequin code of conduct for the final election was imposed within the second week of March and the voting occurred in seven phases between April and Might.

The BJP had received 303 seats out of the 543 elected Lok Sabha seats within the earlier basic election.

Earlier on Saturday, BJP MPs Gautam Gambhir and Jayant Sinha stated in social media posts that they’d requested celebration chief JP Nadda to relieve them of their electoral duties. Whereas Gambhir stated he needs to deal with his cricketing commitments, Sinha stated he needs to deal with his efforts on combating local weather change.

In current weeks, Opposition events have introduced their candidates for a number of the Lok Sabha seats.