Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi in this year’s Lok Sabha polls. BJP President Amit Shah will contest from Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Union Minister Smriti Irani will try her luck the second time from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. She will be pitted against Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
Significantly LK Advani has been denied ticket from Gandhinagar. He had won from here in 2014. Altogether, 25 sitting MPs have been dropped in the first list.
Announcing the list, Union Minister JP Nadda said that Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow, while Nitin Gadkari has been fielded from Nagpur. Among other big names, VK Singh will contest from Ghaziabad, Hema Malini from Mathura while Sakshi Maharaj has been fielded from Unnao.
The party on Thursday announced the names of 184 candidates spread over 20 states. Nadda said that the central election committee had finalised the names of 17 candidates but the announcement will be made along with other NDA partners.
Subhash Bhamre to contest from Dhule, Hansraj Ahir from Chandrapur, Poonam Mahajan from Mumbai North Central.
Union Minister and BJP leader J P Nadda: Subhash Bhamre to contest from Dhule, Hansraj Ahir from Chandrapur, Poonam Mahajan from Mumbai North Central. https://t.co/hluYWwXfCr
— ANI (@ANI) March 21, 2019
Union Minister Babul Supriyo will contest from Asanasol. He will be pitted against Trinamool’s Moon Moon Sen. Rahul Sinha has been fielded Kolkata North and CK Bose from Kolkata South.
BJP candidates for #Karnataka: Anantkumar Hegde to contest from North Kannada, Sadanand Gowda from Bangalore North, B Y Raghavendra from Shimoga, Prathap Sinha from Mysore.
— ANI (@ANI) March 21, 2019
Here are the highlights:
- Kummanam Rajasekharan to contest from Thiruvananthapuram and KJ Alphons from Ernakulam
- Anantkumar Hegde to contest from North Kannada, Sadanand Gowda from Bangalore North, B Y Raghavendra from Shimoga, Prathap Sinha from Mysore
- Baijayant Jay Panda to contest from Kendrapara, Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, Rudra Narayan Pany from Dhenkanal, Pratap Sarangi from Balasore, Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo from Balangir.
LIVE: Press conference by Shri @JPNadda at BJP HQ. https://t.co/idp2vAGuvp
— BJP (@BJP4India) March 21, 2019