The BJP’s fifth list of candidates, which came out on Sunday evening, had enough surprises in store, with the party fielding two actors and turncoats in the list. The party has nominated a protester from Sandeshkhali for the Basirhat constituency in West Bengal.
Rekha Patra, a housewife from the troubled region of Sandeshkhali, has been nominated for the Basirhat seat. The move is seen as a strong statement on the part of the BJP in support of the women of Sandeshkhali and West Bengal.
The BJP released its fifth list of 111 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024.With this list of 111 candidates, the ruling party has named 398 nominees, excluding the four who withdrew after their names created controversy, for the elections to the 543-member Lok Sabha. As many as 37 sitting MPs were denied renomination.
The BJP has fielded Rekha Patra, who party leaders said is one of the Sadeshkhali victims, from West Bengal’s Basirhat constituency in a bid to corner the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress.
The saffron party has fielded Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, Giriraj Singh from Begusarai, Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Kangana Ranaut from Mandi, Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, Sita Soren from Dumka, Jagadish Shettar from Belgaum, K Sudhakaran from Chikkaballapur, Dharmendra Pradhan from Sambalpur, Pratap Sarangi from Balasore, Sambit Patra from Puri, Aparijita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar and Arun Govil from Meerut, among other candidates.
Kangana Ranaut, a vocal supporter of the BJP, will contest from Mandi in her home state of Himachal Pradesh, while veteran actor Arun Govil, famed for his role of Lord Ram in the popular TV serial “Ramayan”, has been preferred to seasoned parliamentarian Rajendra Agrawal in Meerut by the ruling party.
Sita Soren, the sister-in-law of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, is the BJP’s candidate from Dumka. She had quit the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha a few days ago. Among other candidates, the party has announced Rajesh Chudasama from Junagadh, Hari Patel from Mehsana, Shabhna Ben Bariya from Sabarkantha, Dr Hemang Jishi from Vadodara, Bharat bhai Sutaria from Amreli, Chandubhai Shiohora from Surendranaga.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who quit the bench recently and joined the BJP, has been fielded from West Bengal’s Tamluk seat.
Other prominent candidates include Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Odisha’s Sambalpur, former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, party spokesman Sambit Patra from Puri, Andhra Pradesh unit chief D Purandeswari from Rajahmundry, and former Andhra Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who quit the Congress, from Rajampet.
While it has denied the ticket from Pilibhit to Varun Gandhi, a three-term Lok Sabha MP who has often aired views deemed critical of his party’s governments at the Centre and in the state, it has renominated his mother Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.
Jitin Prasada, a minister in the state government, is the party’s choice from Pilibhit, while Atul Garg replaces two-term MP V K Singh in Ghaziabad. Hours before the party released the list, Singh said in a post on X that he is opting out of the polls.
Three leaders who joined the BJP on Sunday figured in the list — Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, Haryana government minister Ranjit Chautala from Hisar (both in Haryana), and Varaprasad Rao from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
In Bihar, the party has fielded Union Ministers RK Singh from Arrah, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Giriraj Singh from Begusarai. Former Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran, Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran, and Ram Kripal Yadav from Pataliputra also figure in the list.
JMM’s Sita Soren, who recently joined the party, has been fielded from Dumka (ST). Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who recently returned to the party from the Congress, has been fielded from Belgaum and former state minister K Sudhakar from Chikballapur. In Kerala, state chief K Surendran has been fielded from Wayanad, where
Kerala BJP president K Surendra will contest from Wayanad, the seat from where incumbent MP and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi is again in the fray.
