Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, actor Kangana Ranaut, former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law and former JMM MLA Sita Soren were among 111 Lok Sabha candidates named by the BJP in its fifth list released Sunday night.
Industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who announced his resignation on X shortly before he joined the BJP Sunday, has been fielded from Kurukshetra. Two others who joined the party Sunday and have been handed Lok Sabha tickets are Haryana minister and independent MLA Ranjit Singh Chautala (Hisar) and former YSRCP MP and MLA Velagapalli Varaprasad Rao (Tirupati).
Omissions included Minister of State General V K Singh (retired) who announced before the release of the list that he would not be contesting – the party choice for Ghaziabad this time is MLA and former UP minister Atul Garg; in Pilibhit, MP Varun Gandhi makes way for UP minister Jitin Prasada – there is buzz that Varun may contest as an independent; in Uttara Kannada, MP Anantkumar Hegde, whose controversial statements kicked up a row, has been dropped; in Meerut, veteran leader Rajendra Agrawal has been replaced by Arun Govil, known for his role of Lord Ram in the Ramayan television serial.
Kangana Ranaut will be the BJP face from Mandi, for long considered a Congress bastion in Himachal Pradesh.
Justice Gangopadhyay, who resigned from the Calcutta High Court and joined the BJP earlier this month, has been handed the party ticket from Tamluk constituency in West Bengal.
Kerala BJP president K Surendran will be the party candidate against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad constituency.
The BJP has retained Maneka Gandhi in Sultanpur in UP (with 9 terms, she is the longest serving Lok Sabha member), Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib, Radha Mohan Singh in Purvi Champaran and Rajiv Pratap Rudy in Saran.
Former Bihar unit president Sanjay Jaiswal has been fielded from Paschim Champaran. Nityanand Rai will be contesting from Ujiarpur, R K Singh from Arrah, Giriraj Singh from Begusarai and Ram Kripal Yadav from Pataliputra.
In Odisha, where a seat sharing arrangement with the BJD did not work out for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in which the party will now go alone, BJP national vice president Baijayant Jay Panda has been fielded from Kendrapara and party national spokesperson Sambit Patra from Puri – in 2019, he lost Puri to BJD’s Pinaki Mishra.
Dharmendra Pradhan, a Rajya Sabha MP, will be contesting from the Sambalpur constituency. The party has retained bureaucrat-turned politician Aparajita Sarangi in Bhubaneswar and Pratap Chandra Sarangi in Balasore.
Sita Soren, sister-in-law of former Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren, has been fielded from Dumka by the BJP, days after she joined the party.
Karnataka BJP veteran Jagadish Shettar, who had quit the party before the Assembly elections last year but returned in January this year, has been handed the ticket from Belgaum.
In West Bengal, Arjun Singh, who left the TMC for BJP twice (his second move to BJP was earlier this month, has been from Barrackpore.
In Darjeeling, ending speculation that the party was considering a fresh name, sitting MP Raju Bista has been named candidate again.
With the fifth list, the BJP has so far announced 402 candidates. In the Sunday list, there are 19 women candidates. Among them is the party’s Andhra Pradesh president and former national general secretary D Purandareshwari who will be contesting from Rajahmundry constituency.
C M Ramesh, a Rajya Sabha MP who had joined the BJP from TDP and played a significant role in forging the alliance between the two parties for these elections, has been fielded from Anakapalle.
Read the full list:
PRESS RELEASE–5th List of BJP Candidate for GE to the Lok Sabha 2024 on 24.03.2024 (1) by Express Web on Scribd
While Ranaut has been fielded from Mandi seat in Himachal Pradesh, the former judge will fight from Tamluk seat in West Bengal. 
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