The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday, 2nd March, released the first list of candidates for the upcoming general elections. In a press conference held at party headquarters in Delhi, BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde read out the list of 195 candidates selected by the party after marathon meetings. The candidates have been announced for 16 states and 2 UTs. The candidates were finalised in a Central Election Committee meeting chaired by party president JP Nadda and attended by PM Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Sigh, Home Minister Amit Shah and other members of the committee on 29 February.
Apart from PM Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha speak Om Birla, the list includes the names of 34 union ministers and 2 former chief ministers. Some prominent names in the list include Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Mansukh Mandaviya, Smriti Irani, Bhupender Yadav, Kiren Rijiju, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and others.
The two former CMs included in the list are former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan who will contest from Vidisha and former Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb from Tripura West.
Among the 195 candidates, 28 are women. 47 candidates are below the age of 50 years. Category wise, there are 27 Scheduled Caste candidates, 18 Scheduled Tribe candidates, and 57 candidates are from OBC. Vinod Tawde said that the list represents all classes of the society.
In this first list, 51 candidates are 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, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh, 2 from Jammu and Kashmir, and 1 each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar and Daman & Diu.
Proving rumours of not giving ticket to current MPs, several current MPs are not included in the list of candidates announced for 195 seats.
In the 5 candidates announced for Delhi, 4 sitting MPs are not named. Chandi Chowk MP Harsh Vardhan, New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi, West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma and South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri are not contesting from these seats. BJP has nominated Praveen Khandelwal, Bansuri Swaraj, Kamalieet Sehrawat and Ramvir Sinqh Bidhuri from these seats respectively. Notably, Bansuri Swaraj is the daughter of former union minister Sushma Swaraj.
The party has nominated Manish Jaiswal from Hazaribagh, currently represented by Jayant Sinha. Notably, earlier in the Sinha wrote to party president JP Nadda asking to relive him from electoral duties. It is believed that he did it after was informed about not getting the ticket this time. East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir also wrote a similar letter, but the party has not announced candidate for this seat.
The full list of the 195 candidates is given below:
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
- Andaman & Nicobar Islands – Bishnu Pada Ray
Arunachal Pradesh
- Arunachal West – Kiren Rijiju
- Arunachal East – Tapir Gao
Assam
- Karimganj (SC) – Kripanath Mallah
- Silchar – Parimal Suklabaidya
- Autonomous District (ST) – Amar Sing Tisso
- Gauhati – Bijuli Kalita Medhi
- Mangaldoi – Dilip Saikia
- Tezpur – Ranjit Dutta
- Nowgong – Suresh Bora
- Kaliabor – Kamakhaya Prasad Tasa
- Jorhat – Topon Kumar Gogai
- Dibrugarh – Sarbananda Sonowal
- Lakhimpur – Pradhan Baruah
Chhattisgarh
- Sarguja (ST) – Chintamani Maharaj
- Raigarh (ST) – Radheshyam Rathia
- Janjgir-Champa (SC) – Kamlesh Jangde
- Korba – Sushri Saroj Pandey
- Bilaspur – Tokhan Sahu
- Rajnandgaon – Santosh Pandey
- Durg – Vijay Baghel
- Raipur – Brijmohan Agarwal
- Mahasamund – Roop Kumari Choudhary
- Bastar (ST) – Mahesh Kashyap
- Kanker (ST) – Bhojraj Nag
Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
- Daman & Diu – Lalubhai Patel
Delhi
- Chandni Chowk – Praveen Khandelwal
- North East Delhi – Manoj Tiwari
- New Delhi – Bansuri Swaraj
- West Delhi- Kamaljeet Sehrawat
- South Delhi – Ramvir Singh Bidhuri
Goa
- North Goa – Shripad Yesso Naik
Gujarat
- Kachchh (SC) – Vinodbhai Lakhmashi Chavda
- Banaskantha – (Dr.) Rekhaben Hiteshbhai Chaudhary
- Patan – Bharatsinhji Dabhi
- Gandhinagar – Amit Shah
- Ahmedabad West (SC) – Dineshbhai Kodarbhai Makwana
- Rajkot – Parshottam Rupala
- Porbandar – Mansukhbhai Mandaviya
- Jamnagar – Poonamben Maadam
- Anand – Miteshbhai Rameshbhai Patel
- Kheda – Devusinh Chauhan
- Panchmahal – Rajpalsinh Mahendrasinh Jadhav
- Dahod (ST) – Jasvantsinh Bhabhor
- Bharuch – Mansukhbhai Vasava
- Bardoli (ST) – Prabhubhai Nagarbhai Vasava
- Navsari – C.R. Patil
Jammu & Kashmir
- Udhampur – Dr. Jitendra Singh
- Jammu – Jugal Kishore Sharma
Jharkhand
- Rajmahal (ST) – Tala Marandi
- Dumka (ST) – Sunil Soren
- Jamshedpur – Nishikant Dubey
- Godda – Annapurna Devi
- Kodarma – Vidhyut Baran Mahato
- Ranchi – Sanjay Seth
- Singhbhum (ST) – Geeta Koda
- Khunti (ST) – Arjun Munda
- Lohardaga (ST) – Samir Oraon
- Palamau (SC) – Vishnu Dayal Ram
- Hazaribagh – Manish Jaiswal
Kerala
- Kasaragod – M.L. Ashwini
- Kannur – C. Raghunath
- Vadakara – Prafulla Krishna
- Kozhikode – M.T. Ramesh
- Malappuram – Abdul Salam
- Ponnani – Niveditha Subramanian
- Palakkad – C. Krishnakumar
- Thrissur – Suresh Gopi
- Alappuzha – Shobha Surendran
- Pathanamthitta – Anil K. Antony
- Attingal – V. Muraleedharan
- Thiruvananthapuram – Rajiv Chandrasekhar
Madhya Pradesh
- Morena – Shivmangal Singh Tomar
- Bhind (SC) – Sandhya Rai
- Gwalior – Bharat Singh Kushwaha
- Guna – Jyotiraditya Scindia
- Sagar – Lata Wankhede
- Tikamgarh (SC) – Virendra Khatik
- Damoh – Rahul Lodhi
- Khajuraho – V.D. Sharma
- Satna – Ganesh Singh
- Rewa – Janardan Mishra
- Sidhi – Dr. Rajesh Mishra
- Shahdol (ST) – Himadri Singh
- Jabalpur – Ashish Dubey
- Mandla (ST) – Faggan Singh Kulaste
- Hoshangabad – Darshan Singh Choudhary
- Vidisha – Shivraj Singh Chouhan
- Bhopal – Alok Sharma
- Rajgarh – Rodmal Nagar
- Dewas (SC) – Mahendra Singh Solanki
- Mandsour – Sudhir Gupta
- Ratlam (ST) – Anita Nagar Singh Chauhan
- Khargone (ST) – Gajendra Patel
- Khandwa – Gyaneshwar Patil
- Betul (ST) – Durga Das Uikey
Rajasthan
- Bikaner (SC) – Arjun Ram Meghwal
- Churu – Devendra Jhajharia
- Sikar – Swami Sumedhanand Saraswati
- Alwar – Bhupender Yadav
- Bharatpur (SC) – Ramswaroop Koli
- Nagaur – Jyoti Mirdha
- Pali – P.P. Chaudhary
- Jodhpur – Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
- Barmer – Kailash Choudhary
- Jalore – Lumbaram Choudhary
- Udaipur (ST) – Mannalal Rawat
- Banswara (ST) – Mahendra Malviya
- Chittorgarh – C.P. Joshi
- Kota – Om Birla
- Jhalawar-Baran – Dushyant Singh
Telangana
- Karimnagar – Bandi Sanjay Kumar
- Nizamabad – Arvind Dharmapuri
- Zahirabad – B.B. Patil
- Malkajgiri – Etela Rajender
- Secundrabad – G. Kishan Reddy
- Hyderabad – Dr. Madhavi Latha
- Chelvella – Kenda Vishweshwar Reddy
- Nagarkurnool (SC) – P. Bharat
- Bhongir – Boora Narsaiah Goud
Tripura
- Tripura West – Biplab Kumar Deb
Uttarakhand
- Tehri Garhwal – Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah
- Almora (SC) – Ajay Tamta
- Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar – Ajay Bhatt
Uttar Pradesh
- PM Modi – Varanasi
- Rajnath Singh – Lucknow
- Smriti Irani – Amethi
- Ritesh Pandey – Ambedkar Nagar
- Hema Malini – Mathura
- Ravi Kishan – Gorakhpur
- Pradeep Kumar – Kairana
- Sanjeev Kumar Balyan – Muzaffarnagar
- Om Kumar – Nagina (SC)
- Ghanshyam Lodhi – Rampur
- Parameshvar Lal Saini – Sambhal
- Kanwar Singh Tanwar – Amroha
- Mahesh Sharma – Gautam Budh Nagar
- Bhola Singh – Bulandshahr (SC)
- Satyapal Singh Baghel – Agra (SC)
- Raj Kumar Chahar – Fatehpur Sikri
- Rajveer Singh – Etah
- Dharmendra Kashyap – Aonla
- Arun Kumar Sagar – Shahjahanpur (SC)
- Ajay Mishra Teni – Kheri
- Rekha Verma – Dhaurahra
- Rajesh Verma – Sitapur
- Jal Prakash Rawat – Hardoi (SC)
- Ashok Kumar Rawat – Misrikh (SC)
- Sakshi Maharaj – Unnao
- Kaushal Kishore – Mohanlalganj (SC)
- Sangam Lal Gupta – Pratapgarh
- Mukesh Rajput – Farrukhabad
- Ram Shankar Katheria – Etawah (SC)
- Subrat Pathak – Kannauj
- Devendra Singh Bhole – Akbarpur
- Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma – Jalaun (SC)
- Anurag Sharma – Jhansi
- Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel – Hamirpur
- R K Singh Patel – Banda
- Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti – Fatehpur
- Upendra Singh Rawat – Barabanki (SC)
- Lallu Singh – Faizabad
- Saket Mishra – Shrawasti
- Kirti Vardhan Singh – Gonda
- Jagdambika Pal – Domariyaganj
- Harish Dwivedi – Basti
- Praveen Kumar Nishad – Sant Kabir Nagar
- Pankaj Choudhary – Maharajganj
- Vijay Kumar Dubey – Kushi Nagar
- Kamlesh Paswan – Bansgaon (SC)
- Neelam Sonkar – Lalganj (SC)
- Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ – Azamgarh
- Ravindra Kushwaha – Salempur
- Kripashankar Singh – Jaunpur
- Mahendra Nath Pandey – Chandauli
West Bengal
- Nisith Pramanik – Cooch Behar (SC)
- Manoj Tigga – Alipurduars (ST)
- Dr. Sukanta Majumdar – Balurghat
- Khagen Murmu – Maldaha Uttar
- Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury – Maldaha Dakshin
- Dr. Nirmal Kumar Saha – Baharampur
- Shri Gauri Shankar Ghosh – Murshidabad
- Jagannath Sarkar – Ranaghat (SC)
- Shantanu Thakur – Bangaon (SC)
- Dr. Ashok Kandari – Joynagar (SC)
- Dr. Anirban Ganguly – Jadavpur
- Dr. Rathin Chakraborty – Howrah
- Locket Chatterjee – Hooghly
- Soumendu Adhikari – Kanthi
- Hiranmay Chattopadhyay – Ghatal
- Jyotirmay Singh Mahato – Purulia
- Dr. Shubash Sarkar – Bankura
- Soumitra Khan – Bishnupur
- Pawan Singh – Asansol
- Priya Saha – Bolpur (SC)
The Election Commission of India is expected to announce the dates of 2024 Lok Sabha elections soon. The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on 16th June, so a new Lok Sabha needs to be formed by then. The elections are expected to be held in April and May.
