LS Polls: BJP releases 1st list of 195 candidates, Modi to contest from Varanasi

THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

In a media briefing, BJP leader Vinod Tawde announced the names of 195 candidates contesting the 2024 Parliamentary elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most high-profile name featured on the first list of the BJP for Parliamentary elections.

Modi will seek re-election to Lok Sabha from the Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He has been contesting from there since 2014.

On the list, of the 195 nominees, two former chief ministers and Lok Sabha Speaker have been included.

A total of 34 Union Ministers and Ministers of States will be fielded again in the Lok Sabha polls.

The party finalised the names of candidates during BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting chaired by PM Modi.

Out of 195 nominees, the BJP’s pick for seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi took everyone by surprise.

Manoj Tiwari is the only BJP MP from Delhi to get a party ticket to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Barring him, all other existing Parliamentarians including Meenakshi Lekhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Singh Verma and others have failed to get party tickets.

The key BJP leaders announced on the first list are:

> Prime Minister Narendra Modi - Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
> Union Home Minister Amit Shah - Gandhinagar, Gujarat
> Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya - Porbandhar, Gujarat
> Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh - Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
> Former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan - Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
> Union Minister Smriti Irani - Amethi, Uttar Pradesh
> Union Minister Kiren Rijiju - Arunachal West, Arunachal Pradesh
> Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia - Guna, Madhya Pradesh
> Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar - Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
> Union Minister of State G Kishan Reddy - Secunderabad, Telangana
> MP Manoj Tiwari - North East Delhi
> Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh - Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir 
> MP Nishikant Dubey - Godda, Jharkhand 
> Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal - Bikaner, Rajasthan
> Union Minister Bhupender Yadav - Alwar, Rajasthan
> LS Speaker OM Birla - Kota, Rajasthan
> Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra Teni - Kheri, Uttar Pradesh
> BJP’s national secretary Anil Antony - Pathanamthitta, Kerala
> Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan - Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
> Actor-politician Suresh Gopi - Thrissur, Kerala

The list includes 195 candidates for 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 11 seats each from Assam, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 9 seats from Telangana, 5 from Delhi, 2 from Jammu and Kashmir, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh and 1 each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar and Daman & Diu.