The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) released the first list of 195 candidates for Lok Sabha elections here in the national capital on March 2. The first list of 195 candidates features high-profile names such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will again contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah who will contest from Gandhinagar in Gujarat
The list, which has names of 34 Union Ministers and Ministers of State, comes days before the dates of Lok Sabha polls – to be held in April-May – are announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The BJP has kept 370+ seats target for the party in the upcoming polls and 400+ for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The list was read out by BJP National Vice President Jay Panda and BJP National General Secretary, Vinod Tawde.
In 2019, the Lok Sabha polls were held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. The result, declared on May 23, saw a landslide victory for the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi with 303 seats in the 543-member House.
In 2019 too, the BJP had revealed names of 184 candidates on March 21, weeks before dates were announced.
Also Read : After Gautam Gambhir, Jharkhand BJP MP Jayant Sinha bows out of Lok Sabha Elections 2024: ‘I have been blessed…’
The speculation over the first list of BJP candidates started doing rounds after a marathon meeting of BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) was held earlier this week. Two sitting MPs Gautam Gambhir from East Delhi and Jayant Sinha from Hazaribagh have already opted out of Lok Sabha polls earlier in the day.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP’s national President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh, Chief Ministers, State Presidents, n-charges, co-in charges, and election in-charges of various states.
Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Assam, Uttarakhand, and Goa were also present.
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Published: 02 Mar 2024, 06:28 PM IST