BJP releases 1st list of 195 candidates for Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi to contest from Varanasi again

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota in Rajasthan. Union ministers Bhupender Yadav from Alwar constituency and Gajendra Shekhawat from Jodhpur are two other prominent leaders contesting from Rajasthan.

Two other Union ministers will contest in Kerala — Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram and V Muraleedharan from Attingal.

The BJP has fielded 15 candidates each in Gujarat and Rajasthan; 12 in Kerala; 11 each in Assam, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh; nine in Telangana; five in Delhi; three in Uttarakhand; two each in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh; and one each in Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar and Daman & Diu. The list features 28 women candidates, 47 youth, 27 from Scheduled Caste, 18 from Scheduled Tribes and 57 OBC candidates.

The list of candidates was finalised by the Central Election Committee (CEC), which met on Thursday with PM Modi heading the marathon meeting.

Announcing the first list, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said the party has been trying to increase the spread of the BJP and the NDA. “Not just the BJP, even the people in this country want fir ek baar Modi sarkar,” he said.

The party had used the ‘early-start’ strategy in the recent assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. The party leaders have said it was a successful strategy.

The BJP is heading towards the elections, expected to be announced soon, with an unprecedented confidence after Modi has set a target of 370 seats for the party on its own and 400 plus for its NDA coalition. The party has already stitched fresh alliances with smaller parties as well as regional outfits like Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka, got back its former partner Janata Dal (United) in Bihar and has been in talks with parties like TDP- JanaSena in Telangana.

Sources also said that with a high target for the Lok Sabha elections, the party had to keep aside some of its plans to prune the candidates list and “winnability” has become the priority.

With the party expected to win most of the states in the Hindi heartlands and its traditional bastions, the BJP is expected to focus on the southern states to win more seats and increase the vote share. The BJP scored 100 per cent in Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and lost just one seat in Madhya Pradesh, two in Chhattisgarh and its alliance lost just one in Bihar in the 2019 elections.

Hours before the party released its first list, two of its sitting MPs, Jayant Sinha and Gautam Gambhir, made a request to BJP president J P Nadda expressing their desire to be relieved of his electoral duties. While Sinha claimed he wanted to focus on his efforts to combat global climate change in India and around the world, Gambhir expressed his desire to focus on upcoming cricket commitments. Party sources said neither of these two MPs was expected to be fielded again in their respective constituencies.