BJP’s first list of candidates out; PM Modi in Varanasi; Amit Shah in Gandhinagar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from his sitting seat of Varanasi. Home Minister Amit Shah has been fielded in Gandhinagar, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in Porbandar and Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Dibrugarh.

The party has repeated Kiren Rijiju and Tapir Gao from the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will fight the polls from Guna in Madhya Pradesh while Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav will face election from Alwar in Rajasthan.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has fielded Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi.

The party has repeated Hema Malini, Ajay Mishra Teni, Mahesh Sharma, SPS Baghel and Sakshi Maharaj from Uttar Pradesh.

Former BSP MP Ritesh Pandey will contest from Ambedkar Nagar seat while Ravi Kishan will fight again from Gorakhpur.

Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar has been fielded from Thiruvananthapuram where he is most likely to take on Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. 

In Tripura, former chief minister Biplab Deb will fight the polls.

In Delhi, the BJP has fielded Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, from New Delhi seat, Kamaljit Sehrawat from West Delhi, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi. 

Praveen Khadelwal will contest from Chandni Chowk seat while Manoj Tiwari has been fielded in North East Delhi.

The list announced for 16 states and Union territories featured 28 women and 47 young leaders.

Those who were dropped from their seats included Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lehi and Harsh Vardhan in Delhi and Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in Bhopal.

The names were announced by BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde at a media briefing at the party headquarters in Delhi. 

The candidates were finalised in the first meeting of the BJP central election committee which met in Delhi on Thursday to discuss seats in approximately 17 seats.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP's National President J.P. Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh, Chief Ministers, State Presidents, In-charges, Co-Incharges, and Election In-charges of various states were present in the meeting.

The next meeting of the committee will be held on March 5, 6 and 7 to finalise candidates’ names for the rest of the seats.