News Brief
Bharatiya Janata Party. (Representative image)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, making significant changes by replacing 33 sitting MPs with new faces as per a report by The New Indian Express.
Here's a list of all those who managed to save their seats and the new faces entering the fray:
Assam
The BJP, in announcing its candidates for 11 Lok Sabha seats in Assam has retained six sitting MPs, while the other five are new faces.
BJP has fielded Parimal Suklabaidhya from Silchar Lok Sabha constituency, won by Rajdeep Roy in the 2019 general elections and from the Autonomous District (ST) seat presently held by BJP MP Horen Singh Bey, party leader Amar Singh Tisso will contest.
Bijuli Kalita Medhi will contest from Gauhati Lok Sabha seat, which is currently held by Queen Oja, while Ranjit Dutta will contest from Tezpur Lok Sabh seat which was won by Pallab Lochan Das in 2019.
Union Minister Sarbanand Sonowal has been named as candidate from Dibrugarh constituency, dropping sitting MP Rameswar Teli.
Chhattisgarh
In the list of the candidates for 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, four new faces are have been nominated.
Kamlesh Jangde will contest the election from Janjgir Champa (SC) constituency, instead of sitting MP Guharam Ajgalley while from Raipur, senior party leader Brijmohan Agrawal will contest, not Sunil Kumar Soni who won the seat in 2019.
From Mahasamund seat, party has nominated Roop Kumari Choudhary to contest the poll, in place of sitting MP Chunni Lal Sahu, while sitting MP Mohan Mandavi was replaced by Bhojraj Nag on Kanker (ST) seat.
Gujarat
In 15 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, BJP has dropped five sitting MPs.
From the Banaskantha seat, Rekhaben Hiteshbhai Choudhary will contest, instead of sitting MP Prabhatbhai Savabhai Patel.
On Ahmedabad West (SC) seat, Dineshbhai Kidarbhai Makwana will replace three-term MP Kirit Solanki.
In Rajkot Lok Sabha seat, the BJP named Union minister Parshottam Rupala as its candidate, while Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will contest for Porbandar seat.
From Panchmahal seat in Gujarat, BJP nominee Rajpalsinh Mahendrasinh Jadhav will contest in place of sitting MP Ratansinh Magansinh Rathod.
In Jharkhand, BJP has decided to field Manish Jaiswal from Hazaribagh seat, which is currently held by Jayant Sinha, son of former Union minister Yashwant Sinha.
On Lohardaga (ST) seat, three-time MP Sudarshan Bhagat was replaced by Samir Oraon.
Madhya Pradesh
In Madhya Pradesh, BJP has replaced seven sitting MPs with new faces.
Bharat Singh Kushwaha has ben chosen for the Gwalior Lok Sabha seat, instead of its sitting MP Vivek Narayan Shejwalker while it dropped sitting MP from Guna, Krishnapal Singh Yadav, to field Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from the seat.
BJP nominee Lata Wankhede will join the fray from Sagar Lok Sabha seat, which is currently held by Rajbahadur Singh.
The BJP has replaced Vidisha MP Ramakant Bhargava with former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as its candidate from the seat while Alok Sharma will be fielded from the Bhopal seat, currently held by Sadhvi Pragya Singh.
From Ratlam (ST) seat, currently held by BJP MP Guman Singh Damor, party nominee Anita Nagar Singh chauhan will contest.
Rajasthan, Tripura And West Bengal
In 15 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, BJP has replaced five sitting MPs with new faces who will contest from Churu, Bharatpur, Jalore, Udaipur, and Banswara contingency.
The party also nominated former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb as its candidate from Tripura West seat, which is currently held by party MP Pratima Bhoumik.
The BJP also dropped its Alipurduar MP John Barla in West Bengal to field Manoj Tigga from the constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribe.
Delhi
Four sitting BJP MPs from Delhi — Ramesh Bidhuri (South Delhi), Meenakshi Lekhi (New Delhi), Parvesh Sahib Singh (West Delhi), and Dr Harsh Vardhan (Chandni Chowk) — were not included in the list.
Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats, and only Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari has been retained from Northeast Delhi in the first list.
Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, will replace Ramesh Bidhuri, while former South Delhi mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat will contest in place of Parvesh Sahib Singh.
Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of the late Sushma Swaraj, will contest from New Delhi, the constituency currently represented by Meenakshi Lekhi.