BJP’s first list for LS poll is out; PM keeps Varanasi

The list, finalised after major consultations and a marathon meeting of the central election committee on February 29, is interesting in the dramatic changes to the line up for Delhi, presaged by East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir ruling himself out from the contest hours before the announcement.

However, almost no changes have been made to the list of 51 candidates announced for Uttar Pradesh.

The State saw the repeat of 43 sitting MPs, including cine star Hema Malini from Mathura. New names have been announced for seats where the BJP lost in 2019.

The list for Delhi seems to have seen the maximum changes. Apart from Manoj Tiwari, who has been repeated from North East Delhi, the BJP has fielded four fresh faces from the five seats it announced today, with two more seats left in abeyance. Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, will be running from Delhi, replacing Meenakshi Lekhi.

In Chattisgarh, the BJP retained only two out of the nine sitting MPs, Vijay Baghel and Santosh Pandey, with three MPs having been elected as MLAs in the recently concluded Assembly polls.

The list for southern States of Kerala and Telangana have seen much accommodation for newcomers. Mr. Chandrashekhar from Thiruvananthapuram; Anil Antony, the son of former Defence Minister A.K. Antony, from Pathanamtitha; and Suresh Gopi from Thrissur. In Telangana, Lok Sabha MP B.B. Patil, who was newly inducted from the BRS, has been fielded from Zahirabad.

The BJP has fielded nine sitting MPs from West Bengal out of 20 candidates from the State announced on Saturday, including the party’s State president Sukanta Majumdar from Balurghat, and Union Ministers of State Nisith Pramanik from Coochbehar, and Subhas Sarkar from Bankura. The party has also fielded three sitting MLAs: Manoj Tigga from the Alipurduar seat, Hiranmoy Chatterjee from Ghatal, and Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury from Malda Dakshin. John Barla, the sitting MP from Alipurduar, has been dropped.

The BJP is likely to hold a second meeting of the party’s central election committee on March 6, where States not addressed so far — including big alliance States like Maharashtra and Bihar — will be considered.