Lok Sabha Elections: After days of deliberations and meetings, the Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of 195 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections on Saturday. The party has fielded Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, UP, and Union Home Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, among candidates for 16 states and union territories.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will fight Lok Sabha polls from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, while Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav has been fielded from Alwar. Notably, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will contest the upcoming LS polls from Vidhisha, Madhya Pradesh. Union Minister V Muralidharan will contest from Attingal and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will contest from Thiruvananthapuram.
The BJP is repeating Kiren Rijiju and Tapir Gao from two Arunachal Pradesh seats, while Sarbananda Sonowal will flight the LS polls from Dibrugarh, Assam. Bansuri Swaraj has been fielded from the New Delhi seat, Kamaljit Sehrawat from West Delhi, and Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi. Praveen Khandelwal has been nominated from the Chandni Chowk seat, and Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi.
In Gujarat, BJP fielded Home Minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar.
"PM Modi to contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiran Rijiju to contest from Arunachal West, BJP MP Bishnu Pada Ray to contest from Andaman & Nicobar, BJP MP Tapir Gao to contest from Arunachal East, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to contest from Dibrugarh," said BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde.
The party said it is trying to expand its reach in the country and expressed confidence in securing a clear majority in the upcoming General Election 2024. "After holding talks in various regions, the central leadership decided the names for the nominations. Out of this, a decision was reached for 195 seats with PM Modi to fight the election from Varanasi," BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde said.
Ahead of the announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) at the party's headquarters in the national capital which ended early Friday. The meeting was attended by senior leaders of the saffron party including party national president JP Nadda and Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh as the party looks to name its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, Madhya Pradesh's Mohan Yadav, Uttarakhand's Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Goa's Pramod Sawant were also present during the meeting. State leaders attend the CEC meeting when candidates for constituencies falling in their respective states are discussed.
During the meeting, a large number of those seats were discussed that the party failed to grab in the 2019 general elections, reported PTI quoting party sources as saying.