On Wednesday (13th March), the Bharatiya Janata Party released its second list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, announcing 72 more candidates. Notably, the list includes three former Chief Ministers namely Manohar Lal Khattar, Trivendra Singh Rawat, and Basvaraj Bommai. Four Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Anurag Thakur, Piyush Goyal, and Pralhad Joshi are also on the second list.
Former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar who resigned yesterday on 12th March will be contesting from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat.
In Himachal Pradesh, Union Minister Anurag Thakur will contest from the Hamirpur constituency while Suresh Kashyap has been fielded from the Shimla seat.
In Karnataka, the party has fielded Union Minister Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad. The party’s youth wing chief Tejaswi Surya will contest from the Bangalore South constituency and V Sommana from Tumkur. B Y Raghvendra, the son of former state chief minister B S Yediyurappa will contest from Shimoga. Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai has been given a ticket from the Haveri Lok Sabha seat, while PC Mohan will contest from Bangalore Central.
In Maharashtra, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will again be contesting from the Nagpur seat. Piyush Goyal will contest from Mumbai North. Pankja Munde has been fielded from Beed. Additionally, Anup Dhotre will fight the polls from the Akola seat, and Kapil Moreshwar Patil from Bhiwandi.
The party has announced candidates for two seats in Uttarakhand. Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat will be contesting from the Haridwar seat while Anil Baluni, the party’s National Chief Spokesperson, is set to contest from the Garhwal seat.
In Delhi, Harsh Malhotra will contest from East Delhi constituency, a seat which was held by former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir. Yogendra Chandolia will contest from North West Delhi.
Meanwhile, Kalaben Delkar will contest from Dadar and Nagar Haveli.
The list also includes names of candidates for seven Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. Hashmukhbhai Somabhai Patel will contest from Ahmedabad East, Dhawal Patel from Valsad, Mukeshbhai Chandrakant Dalal from Surat, Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt from Vadodara, Nimuben Bambhania from Bhavnagar, Bhikhaji Dudhaji Thakor from Sabarkantha and Jashubhai Bhilubhai Rathwa from Chhota Udaipur.
Six names have been announced from Haryana. Banto Kataria from Ambala, Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, Chaudhary Dharambir Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendargah, Rao Inderjit Singh Yadav from Gurgaon, and Krishanpal Gurjar from Faridabad.
In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has fielded Vivek ‘Bunty’ Sahu from the Chhindwara seat where he will face Congress leader Nakul Nath. Shankar Lalwani will contest from Indore.
In Telangana, Godam Nagesh will contest from Adilabad, DK Aruna from Mahbubnagar, and Saida Reddy will contest from Nalgonda.
In Tripura, the party has fielded Maharani Kriti Singh Debbarma from Tripura East.
Earlier, on 2nd March, the party had released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
So far, Congress has announced candidates for 82 Lok Sabha seats while BJP has announced its candidates for 267 seats in two lists.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party won a total of 303 seats, leaving the grand-old party behind at 52 seats. The Lok Sabha polls are slated to be held in April-May this year.
(With Inputs from ANI)