PM Modi, Amit Shah in BJP’s 1st list for 195 LS seats, 20% sitting MPs not repeated

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi, who is seeking a third term, will contest the Lok Sabha elections from his Varanasi seat, while home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh will seek re-election from their constituencies of Gandhinagar and Lucknow respectively.

They along with former CM of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Smriti Irani, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Munda, Kiren Rijiju and Sarbananda Sonowal are among the 195 names BJP announced on Saturday for stealing a march over its rivals. In all, 34 Union ministers figure in the list. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota in Rajasthan.

Names were announced for UP (51), MP (24), Gujarat (15), West Bengal (20), Rajasthan (15), Kerala (12), Chattisgarh (11), Jharkhand (11), Assam (11 ), Telangana (9), Delhi (5), Uttarakhand (3), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Arunchal Pradesh (2), Goa (1), Tripura (1) and Andamans (1), Daman Diu (1).

Big states like Maharashtra, Bihar and Andhra as well as Punjab where the party is in coalition or is exploring tie-ups don’t figure in the list though the party has finished its homework on its choices for seats it has decided to contest.

The list is a reflection of the party’s confidence and effort to balance boldness in de-boarding some incumbents with caution in sticking with “safe” veterans and accommodating the influential ones who crossed over from other parties. The nerve is evident in Delhi where the party has replaced four sitting MPs, replacing 3 of them with new faces: Bansuri Swaraj, Kamaljeet Sehrawat and Praveen Khandelwal.

Another Union minister, John Barla from Alipurduar in West Bengal, has been dropped.

Nearly 20% of the incumbents have been dropped and 47% of the nominees are less than 50 years, bringing out the party’s focus on youth. The list includes 28 women, making up 14% of candidates announced so far.

The party’s focus on OBC community has also been reflected as majority of sitting MPs from the caste bracket, mainly in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, have been retained. The category accounts for 57 of the nominations.

The party has fielded one Muslim candidate — Abdul Salam from Malappuram in Kerala. This is the first time BJP has fielded a Muslim candidate in Lok Sabha polls since 2014.

Former Union minsters who are missing from the list include Harshvardhan (Chandni Chowk) and Jayant Sinha who took to X in the morning to declare that he had opted out of the contest because of his commitment to fight climate change. Suspense is going to linger over the chances of others like Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank as the party has refrained from confirming him for his Haridwar seat.

In keeping with party’s directive, Union ministers who represented Rajya Sabha have been thrust into the Lok Sabha arena: Yadav, Mandaviya, Sonowal, V Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who could be facing Congress’s Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram.

Besides Chouhan, another former CM, Biplab Deb (Tripura-West), currently a member of RS, has been nominated. Sonowal is the third former CM who will be in the fray.

The list features other interesting names as well — Saket Misra, former IPS and currently MLC in UP, and Pawan Singh, Bhojpuri actor and singer. Misra, son of former principal secretary to PM Nripendra Misra who is chairman of the Ramjanmabhoomi Trust, has been fielded from Shravasti, while Singh will take on Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol.

Hema Malini survived a big challenge to retain the ticket for Mathura seat. The party has also kept its faith in Mahesh Chandra Sharma for Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida) despite spirited claims by others.

Malegaon terror blasts accused Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, who routed MP chief minister Digvijay Singh in Bhopal but could not build upon the enviable debut because of health-related issues and temperament, has been dropped. Veterans in UP like Union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey and senior MP Jagdambika Pal, who appeared to be on their way out, have been retained, while Brijmohan Agarwal, who was for the first time denied a department in a BJP govt in Chhattisgarh, is the surprise choice for Raipur seat.

The winners of high-stake bypolls in Azamgarh and Rampur — Dinesh Yadav Nirahua and Ghanshyam Lodhi — have also been repeated. The party has also reposed faith in Ajay Mishra Teni, who was in news after his son was arrested on charges of running over protesting farmers in Kheri in October 2021.

Those who crossed over from other parties are: Ritesh Pandey (Ambedkar Nagar); former Maharashtra minister Kripa Shankar Singh ( Jaunpur); Geeta Koda (Singhbhum); BRS sitting MP from Zaheerabad Konda Vishveshwar Reddy (Chevella) and Pothuganti Bharat from Nagarkurnool. Congress stalwart AK Antony’s son Anil Antony has been fielded from Pathanamthitta in Kerala and Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur despite having lost the assembly polls.

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