The Bharatiya Janata Party released its fifth list of 111 candidates on Sunday for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, retaining tickets for several MPs and Union ministers while also fielding turncoats and new candidates. Some existing ones like Union ministers Ashwini Kumar Choubey and V K Singh, and MP Varun Gandhi have however been dropped by the party.
Party firbrand leaders including Giriraj Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad have been renominated while turncoats like Sita Soren and industrialist Naveen Jindal who left the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress respectively were also given a ticket by the party.
Here is a list of top candidates fielded by the BJP in the fifth list.
K Surendran (Wayanad): Kerala BJP president, Surendran has been nominated from Wayanad, the current constituency of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Pathanamthitta constituency and secured third position.
Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur): Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Rai has been renominated from Bihar's Ujiarpur seat. He won the seat in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Giriraj Singh (Begusarai): Currently serving as Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department, Singh has been fielded again from Bihar's Begusarai seat. He won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls defeating Kanhaiya Kumar who was then contesting the election on a CPI ticket.
Ravishankar Prasad (Patna Sahib): The BJP has once again fielded Ravi Shankar Prasad from the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency after he won the seat in 2019 defeating Shatrughan Sinha, who fought the polls on a Congress ticket.
Naveen Jindal (Kurukshetra): The industrialist, who had been a two-time MP from Congress quit the party on Sunday and was fielded by the BJP hours after joining the saffron camp. Jindal represented the Kurukshetra constituency in the Lok Sabha for two terms. However, he lost to BJP's Raj Kumar Saini in 2014 and was not fielded by Congress in 2019.
Kangana Ranaut (Mandi): The actor has been a vocal supporter of the BJP and will be contesting in her debut polls from her home seat of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.
Sita Soren (Dumka -ST): Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's sister-in-law, Sita Soren quit the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha a few days ago after which she joined the saffron camp and was fielded by the party from Dumka (ST) Lok Sabha seat.
Jagadish Shettar (Belgaum): Former Karnataka chief minister who had snapped his long ties with the BJP to join Congress last year returned to its folds months later and has been pitted from Karnataka's Belgaum Lok Sabha seat.
Dharmendra Pradhan (Sambalpur): Union education minister, Pradhan is currently serving as Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.
Sambit Patra (Puri): BJP national spokesperson, Patra was nominated from Puri Lok Sabha seat during the 2019 polls but lost to Biju Janata Dal's Pinaki Misra.
Arun Govil (Meerut): The veteran actor, famed for his role as Lord Ram in the popular TV serial "Ramayan", has been given a ticket by the BJP from Meerut Lok Sabha seat instead of seasoned parliamentarian Rajendra Agrawal. This will be Govil's debut polls as well.
Maneka Gandhi (Sultanpur): Former union minister, Maneka has been renominated from Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat. Her son, Varun Gandhi has however been dropped from the Pilibhit constituency.
Dilip Ghosh (Bardhman-Durgapur): BJP MP from Medinipur, Ghosh has been shifted to West Bengal's Bardhman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat for this year's polls.