The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, to name a few.
In a media briefing, BJP leader Vinod Tawde announced the names of 195 candidates contesting the 2024 Parliamentary elections. The decision comes after days of discussion held by the BJP’s central election committee with the prime minister in attendance.
The first list of candidates features senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will be contesting in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, once again and Union Home Minister Amit Shah who will contest from Gandhinagar, Gujarat; along with Rajnath Singh, Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Arjun Ram Meghwal, G Kishan Reddy, Arjun Munda and Smriti Irani.
The list includes 34 ministers and two former chief ministers, with 28 women, 47 leaders under 50, and 57 members from the OBC community. Notably, 51 are from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, five from Delhi and nine from Telangana.
Nine from Telangana
From Telangana, BJP has announced nine candidates. They are Etela Rajendar will contest from Malkajigiri, Bandi Sanjay from Karimnagar, D Arvind from Nizamabad, BB Patil from Zaheerabad, G Kishen Reddy from Secunderabad, Dr Madhavi Latha from Hyderabad, Konda Vishveshwar Reddy from Chevella and P Bharath from Nagarkurnool and B Narasaiah Goud Bhongir.
Scindia, Anil Antony in the list
Other notable names are Suresh Gopi from Thrissur, Anil Antony from Pathanamthitta, Rajeev Chandrashekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha, Arjun Meghwal from Bikaner, Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar, Gajendrasingh Sekhawat from Jodhpur and Om Birla from Kota.
Former BSP MP Ritesh Pandey, who switched to BJP, will contest from the Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat in UP while Ravi Kishan will fight again from Gorakhpur
BJP picks 7 candidates for Delhi
Out of 195 nominees, the BJP’s pick for seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi took everyone by surprise. Manoj Tiwari is the only BJP MP from Delhi to get a party ticket to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Barring him, all other existing Parliamentarians including Meenakshi Lekhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Singh Verma and others have failed to get party tickets.
Party confident for a hatrik
Announcing the list, BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde said the party is confident that it would form the government for the third term under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a much bigger mandate.
He also said the party has been working on further expanding its footprint across states and also to strengthen the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Modi has set a target for the BJP to win at least 370 seats on its own in this Lok Sabha election and more than 400 for the NDA.
The BJP won 303 seats in the 2019 polls but currently, it has 290 members in Lok Sabha for various reasons including some MPs recently resigning after winning assembly polls.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the poll schedule later this month and the elections are likely to be held in April-May.
(With inputs from agencies)
