BJP's 12th List Fields Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's Descendent In Satara, Cuts Tickets Of Two Sitting MPs In Uttar Pradesh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (16 April) released its 12th list of Lok Sabha candidates declaring Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's descendent as a candidate among others.

Maratha royal and incumbent Rajya Sabha MP Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhonsle has been fielded from Satara. He has earlier represented this constituency from 2009 to 2019 as a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP.

However, he joined the BJP soon after winning the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and lost the seat in by-polls to NCP's Shriniwas Patil. He will have to face NCP (Sharad Pawar)'s Shashikant Jaywantrao Shinde in this election.

Manjeet Singh Manna Miawind is fielded from Khadoor Sahib to face Punjab Cabinet Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, who is an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate.

Anita Som Parkash is fielded from Hoshiarpur. She is the wife of incumbent BJP MP Som Parkash. However, as he has turned 75 years of age, he has been replaced by BJP's policy of age limit.

Former IAS Parampal Kaur Siddhu is fielded from Bathinda against incumbent Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Punjab Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian is the AAP candidate here.

The BJP has cut tickets of two sitting MPs in Uttar Pradesh.

Chandrasen Jadon is replaced by Thakur Vishwadeep Singh in Firozabad. The move is expected to pacify angry Rajputs. He had contested here on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket in 2014 but came third.

Ramapati Ram Tripathi is replaced by Shashank Mani Tripathi in Deoaria. Shashank is the son of Prakash Mani Tripathi, who had won from this constituency twice in 1996 and 1998 on a BJP ticket.

In West Bengal's Diamond Harbour, the BJP has fielded Abhijit Das (Bobby) against Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who has been representing the constituency since 2014.