The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, sounding the poll bugle of the much anticipated general elections. In a press conference attended by the party's vice president Baijayant Panda and general secretary Vinod Tawde, the party announced first list of 195 candidates.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest the election from UP's Varanasi. 34 union ministers, Lok Sabha speaker and 2 former ministers are included in this list of candidates," Tawde Said.
Key candidates:
Home Minister Amit Shah will be contesting from Gujarat's Gandhinagar, while State President CR Paatil will vie for the Navsari seat.
Union Minister Kiran Rijiju is set to contest from the Arunachal West seat, with State President Tapir Gao competing for the Arunachal East seat. Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal will be contesting from Dibrugarh.
Manoj Tiwari has been nominated to contest from North East Delhi, while Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, will be contesting from New Delhi.
Nishikant Dubey will contest from Jharkhand's Godda, Geeta Koda from Sinhabhum, and Arjun Munda from Khunti.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be contesting from Thiruvananthpuram.
Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from the Guna seat, VD Sharma from Khajuraho, and Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will contest from Vidisha.
Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal, Bhupendra Yadav, and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will contest from Bikaner, Alwar, and Jodhpur respectively. CP Joshi will contest from Chittorgarh, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota.
Bandi Sanjay will contest from Telangana's Karimnagar, Etala Rajender from Malkajgiri, and G Kishan Reddy from Secunderabad.
Biplab Kumar Dev is set to contest from Tripura West.
Union Minister Rajnath Singh will vie for the Lucknow seat, while Union Minister Smriti Irani will contest from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. Sanjeev Balyan will contest from Muzaffarnagar, and Hema Malini will compete from Mathura. Ajay Mishra Teni will contest from Lakhimpur Kheri. Ravi Kishan will contest from Gorakhpur. BSP turncoat Ritesh Pandey will contest from Ambedkar Nagar.
Sukanta Majumdar has been fielded from West Bengal's from Bellur Ghat. Pawan Singh has been fielded from Asansol.
