The Bharatiya Janata Party announced its first list to the general elections starting next month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from his current Lok Sabha seat Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh.
While BJP President Amit Shah takes over the seat of veteran BJP LK Advani’s Gandhinagar seat. There is a growing suspicion if Advani would contest polls or not as his name wasn’t mentioned in the 184 member list BJP announced.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari will contest from Lucknow and Nagpur respectively, they are sitting lawmakers of these constituencies.
Union minister Smriti Irani will fight Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the second time from Amethi.. Last time in 2014, Gandhi retained the seat, but won by a reduced margin.
BJP’s Kerala strongman Kummanam Rajasekharan who recently quit as Mizoram Governor stand against Congress’s Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram, while Union Minister KJ Alphons will contest from Ernakulam.
BJP fielded its Tamil Nadu state chief Tamilisai Soundararajan from Thoothukudi, from where DMK’s K Kanimozhi is also contesting.
Jay Panda who quit BJD recently will contest from Kendrapara. Minister of State from Home Kiren Rijiju will fight from Arunachal East.
In total 28 names each have been announced for Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, 21 Karnataka, 16 Maharashtra, 16 Rajasthan, 13 Kerala, 10 Odisha, 10 Telangana, 8 Assam, 5 Tamil Nadu, 5 Chhattisgarh, 5 Jammu and Kashmir, 5 Uttarakhand, 2 Arunachal, 2 Tripura, 2 Andhra Pradesh, 1 Gujarat, 1 Sikkim, 1 Mizoram, 1 Lakshadweep and 1 Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The first phase of polling begins on April 11th, and the counting would be held on May 23rd.