19 MOST IMPORTANT candidates of 2019 Lok Sabha elections

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to contest from his parliamentary constituency Varanasi as declared in party’s first list of cancdidates for upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Modi swept the polls in 2014 general elections as he bagged 56.37% vote share by winning 5,81,122 votes. Unlike last time, Modi will not be contesting from a second seat this time.

1. Narendra Modi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to contest from his parliamentary constituency Varanasi as declared in party’s first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Modi swept the polls in 2014 general elections as he bagged 56.37% vote share by winning 5,81,122 votes. Unlike last time, Modi will not be contesting from a second seat this time. In 2014, PM Modi contested from Varanasi as well as Vadodara in his home state Gujarat. After winning both, he decided to retain Varanasi.

 

2. Rahul Gandhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be contesting the polls from two seats. First will be his parliamentary constituency Amethi and the second would be Wayanad seat in Kerala, where his party has had a strong hold since years. Rahul won from his Amethi seat in 2014 by winning 408,651 votes and getting 46.71% vote share.

 

3. Amit Shah: Bharatiya Janta Party Chief Amit Shah is set to contest the upcoming polls from Gandhinagar seat. The seat earlier was earlier a parliamentary constituency of BJP veteran LK Advani. Shah has earlier been an MP Rajya Sabha.

 

4. Ravi Shankar Prasad: Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency. This is for the first time that Prasad, a four-term Rajya Sabha member, will be contesting a Lok Sabha election. Rebel BJP leader, Shatrughan Sinha who has been taking jibes at own party is likely to contest against RS Prasad from Patnasahib on Congress ticket.

 

5. Smriti Irani: BJP leader and current Textile Minister Smriti Irani contested the 2014 general elections against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi constituency of Uttar Pradesh. Irani lost to Gandhi by 1,07,923 votes, a 12.32% margin. In spite of losing to Gandhi, Irani still found her way to power via Rajya Sabha .

 

6. Akhilesh Yadav: Samajwadi Chief and former CM of Uttar Pradesh is set to contest the polls from Kannauj, constituency from where his wife Dimple Yadav contested in 2014 and bagged highest number of votes. Akhilesh in 2009 also contested from Kannauj and bagged 45.52% votes.

 

7. Mehbooba Mufti: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti defeated sitting MP and senior National Conference leader Mehboob Beg from Anantnag Parliamentary constituency by a margin of 65,417 votes. Mehbooba, who never lost any election since joining politics in 1996, polled 2,00,429 votes, while Beg got 1,35,012 votes.

       8. Shashi Tharoor: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is once again set to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Thiruvananthapuram.   Thiruvananthapuram will witness a triangular tussle between the Left Democratic Front (LDF), the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). UDF candidate Shashi Tharoor is the two time sitting MP from the constituency is a popular figure in Thiruvananthapuram, and attained victories in the 2009 and 2014.

9. Mulayam Singh: SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is set to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Mainpuri, which is considered to be a Samajwadi Party bastion for long. Even in 2014 Mulayam won from the Mainpuri LS seat. BJP has fielded Prem Singh Shakya to contest the polls this year from this seat.

 

10. Farooq Abdullah: Kashmir’s veteran politician Farooq Abdullah is set to contest the polls from Srinagar constituency.  Unlike the previous election where Farooq faced his first defeat in his 42-year-long career at the hands of PDP’s Tariq Hameed Karra, the situation seems to be better for Farooq this time.

 

10. Asaduddin Owaisi: Owaisi is the reigning Member of Parliament (MP) from Hyderabad constituency in Telangana. The 49-year-old politician is likely to retain the parliamentary seat for the fourth consecutive time in the Lok Sabha elections. The Hyderabad constituency saw general elections in the first phase which were held on April 11.

 

12. Ajit Singh:  Rashtriya Lok Dal Chief, who lost in Baghpat, western Uttar Pradesh in 2014 Lok Sabha elections after winning straight since 1999, with only one defeat; contested the Lok Sabha elections  this year from Muzaffarnagar seat. Singh was pitted against former Union minister Sanjiv Balyan in Muzaffarnagar, where Muslim voters dominate in all five assembly segments of this Lok Sabha seat.

 

13. Rajnath Singh: Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who is currently an MP from Lucknow, is set to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Lucknow seat again. As per reports Rajnath will be filing his nominations on April 16.

 

14. Nitin Gadkari: The Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways is the BJP candidate from Nagpur. Gadkari, who had defeated the Congress's Vilas Muttemwar in the 2014 parliamentary election faced BJP rebel Nana Patole, who has been fielded by the Congress this time.

 

15. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra: The sister of Congress president Rahul Gandhi who made her debut in active politics just ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections can be seen as a possible game-changer for Congress. Priyanka, who is yet to declare the seat from where she will be contesting the polls, is considered as a shadow of her grandmother and former PM Indira Gandhi by several party workers.

 

16. Shatrughan Sinha: Actor-turned politician Shatrughan Sinha, who recently dumped Bharatiya Janta Party and joined Congress, will be contesting from Patna Sahib Seat in Bihar. Sinha will be battling against BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.

 

17. Urmila Matondkar: Actor-turned politician Urmila is set to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North constituency on Congress ticket. Urmila becomes an important candidate for the party because of her popularity in Maharashtra. After joining Congress, Matondkar, who can be seen actively campaigning for the polls, said "Now that I have a platform, I will not speak within the four walls".

 

18. Karti Chidambaram: Would be contesting the general elections from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu. In 2014, Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, fought and lost in the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency.

 

19. Jaya Prada: Actor-turned politician Jaya Prada is set to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Rampur seat against SP candidate Azam Khan. Jaya Prada, who has been a star candidate of Samajwadi Party in the past; on joining BJP said "Today I am working with that brave leader in whose hands the country feels safe ... PM Modi. I thank the BJP and Amit Shah for this”.