BJP Candidate List 2024: Stepping into the Lok Sabha elections 2024 with a target to win 370 seats, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released the first list of its candidates on Saturday. BJP announced its candidates on 195 seats across 16 states. While most of the candidates were along the expected lines, there were some notable exclusions from the first list.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to contest from the Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh for the third consecutive time. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will fight from Gandhinagar, and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will hope to enter Lok Sabha from the Vidisha constituency.
BJP’s First candidate list: 5 big names missing
1. Sadhvi Pragya Thakur: The BJP has fielded Alok Sharma from the Bhopal seat of Madhya Pradesh instead of the sitting MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur was one of the ‘giant killers’ as she defeated Congress stalwart Digvijaya Singh by a huge margin of 3,64,822 votes.
2. Ramesh Bhiduri: The first list of BJP candidates names Delhi Assembly LoP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from the South Delhi constituency, which is currently represented by Ramesh Bhiduri.
3. Parvesh Verma: From the West Delhi constituency of Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat won the BJP ticket in place of the party’s sitting MP Parvesh Verma. Kamaljeet Sahrawat is the former mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation and is one of party’s strong faces in Delhi MCD.
4. Meenakshi Lekhi: Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi’s name is missing from the first list of BJP’s candidates and the party has decided to field Sushri Bansuri Swaraj from her New Delhi seat. Bansuri Swaraj is a Supreme Court lawyer and daughter of the late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj.
5. Harsh Vardhan: Chandni Chowk MP and former Union Minister Harsh Vardhan did not feature in the first list of candidates. Businessman Praveen Khandelwal was fielded from the Chandni Chowk constituency on the ticket of BJP.
Out of its 7 MPs from Delhi, the BJP has already replaced 4 MPs and only retained Manoj Tiwari from the North East Delhi constituency. One more change is expected as the party’s East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir decided to step down from politics on Saturday.
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Published: 02 Mar 2024, 08:31 PM IST