LIVE | BJP first list for LS polls out: Modi to contest Varanasi, Shah Gandhinagar

The BJP on Saturday (March 2) announced its first list of 195 candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will once again contest from Varanasi, UP, while Home Minister Amit Shah will contest the Gandhinagar seat in Gujarat.

After a lot of speculation over who will take on Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Rajeev Chandrashekhar has been declared as the candidate. Anil Antony will contest the Pathanamthitta seat, while V Muraleedharan will do so from Attingal.

Some of the major names in UP are Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, and Union Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi, where she defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2019.

Rajasthan has a host of prominent names, including Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal from Bikaner, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Jodhpur, Union Minister Kailash Choudhary from Barmer, Rajasthan BJP president CP Joshi from Chittorgarh, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from Kota.

Some major changes have been made for Delhi, with Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lekhi, and Harsh Vardhan being dropped from their respective seats. In Madhya Pradesh, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur has been dropped from her Bhopal seat.

Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of the late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, will make her poll debut from the New Delhi seat, Kamaljeet Sehrawat will contest from the from West Delhi, MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, Praveen Khadelwal from Chandni Chowk, while Manoj Tiwari has been retained from the North East Delhi constituency. Besides Lekhi, John Barla is another Union minister who has been dropped from his seat.

The list covers 20 seats in West Bengal, 24 in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Gujarat, 15 in Rajasthan, 12 in Kerala, 9 in Telangana, 11 in Assam, 11 in Jharkhand, 11 in Chhattisgarh, and 5 in Delhi.

The list contains 34 central and state ministers, one former chief minister, 28 women, 47 young leaders below the age of 50, 27 SC, 18 ST, and 57 OBC candidates.

The BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) met in Delhi on Thursday night as its members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, held deliberations to finalise the first list of candidates for the polls expected to be held in April-May.

BJP president JP Nadda and Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh were among those who attended the meeting as the ruling party looks to name its candidates for a sizeable number of the 543 Lok Sabha seats before the Election Commission (EC) announces the poll schedule.

To read the findings of the The Federal-Puthiyathalaimurai-Apt 2024 Pre-Poll Survey, and watch the panel discussions, click here.