The BJP released its second list of candidates this evening for the Lok Sabha polls, after a last-minute hiccup over one seat each in Bihar. The list of 72 names includes a number of old hands including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, who is making his electoral debut, and Anurag Singh Thakur. The other fresh face is Manohar Lal Khattar, who was pulled out of the Haryana Chief Minister’s post yesterday. Two other former Chief Ministers — Trivendra Singh Rawat and Basavaraj Bommai — have also been fielded.
Sources said there was an eleventh-hour negotiation over one seat in Bihar.
Candidates have been declared for two seats in Delhi, seven seats in Gujarat, six seats in Haryana, two seats in Himachal Pradesh, 20 seats in Karnataka, 5 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 20 seats in Maharashtra, 6 seats in Telangana, 1 seat in Tripura and 2 seats in Uttarakhand. Candidates have also been announced for Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
In Delhi, the BJP has fielded two new candidates — Harsh Malhotra from East Delhi and Yogendra Chandolia from North West Delhi.
In Karnataka — the only southern state where the party has considerable heft — the BJP is fielding around 10 new faces, after its big defeat in the recent assembly election.
Among the known faces is Union minister Pralhad Joshi, who will fight from Dharwad while former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s son BY Raghavendra will contest from Shimoga.
In Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya, the BJP’s youth wing chief, will seek re-election. Yaduveer Krishnadatta Wadiyar of the erstwhile Mysore royal familyhas replaced Pratap Simha as the candidate for Mysore seat.
In Maharashtra, the BJP has fielded Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal, and former state minister Pankaja Munde. The party has announced candidates for 20 of the state’s 48 seats. After Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra sends the maximum numbee of MPs to the Lok Sabha.
Nitin Gadkari was renominated from Nagpur – the headquarters of the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Among the eight newcomers are Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal – fielded from Mumbai North – and Pankaja Munde from Beed. All Union ministers from Maharashtra have been fielded again.
In Uttarakhand, BJP chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni has been fielded from Garhwal.
Earlier this month, the BJP had announced its first list of more than 190 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, due this summer.
In that list, the BJP had announced its star contestents– Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi for a third time, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, from Gandhinagar and Lucknow. In all, the list named 34 Union ministers.
