New Delhi: The BJP on Saturday dropped Ashwini Kumar, the editor of Punjab Kesari and grandson of freedom fighter Lala Jagat Narayan, from Karnal in Haryana due to poor health and Colonel Sona Ram Choudhary from Barmer in Rajasthan in its 18th list of 24 candidates from the seven states, raising the total tally to 406. The Jhansi seat in UP that was won in 2014 by Union minister Uma Bharati, who has opted not to contest the LS poll this time around, has been given to Anuag Sharma while three others in UP are: Keshri Patel (Phulpur), Nilam Sonkar (Lalganj) and R K Patel (Banda).
Sanjay Bhatia has been been fielded from Karnal while Union minister Rao Inderjeet Singh, who had defected from the Congress in 2014, will again contest from Gurgaon while four other sitting MPs from Haryana have been renominated. The saffron party is yet to reach a consensus on the Indore seat held by LS Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who has decided not to contest, nor on the Bhopal seat from where the Congress has fielded former MP CM Digvijay Singh, declaring three candidates — L Mahendra Solanki from Dewas, Gwalior mayor Vivek Sejwalkar, son of a former BJP MP, from Gwalior and Natthan Singh from Chhindwara to take on CM Kamal Nath’s son Nakul trying to retain the seat his father had won nine times.
Kamal Nath is contesting the Chhindwara Assembly bypoll to legitimise his continuation as the CM and fielded against him by BJP is Vivek Sahu alias Bunty, a local leader. Only Manoj Rajoriya has been renominated out of the four candidates from Rajasthan while Kailash Chaudhary replaces Col Sona Ram in Barmer, Mrs Ranjeeta Kohli is contesting from Bharatpur and Diya Kumari (pic) from Rajsamund. The BJP list includes three candidates in Jharkhand and one each in West Bengal and Odisha.
