PM Modi to contest from Varanasi again, 34 ministers in BJP’s first list
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, the BJP announced on Saturday.
The party announced its first list of 195 candidates for the polls, which includes 34 ministers. This is the third time PM Modi will be contesting from the Varanasi seat. In 2014, he defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and in 2019, won against Samajwadi Party’s Shalini Yadav.
The BJP’s announcement came after PM Modi held a late-night meeting at his residence earlier this week to finalise the candidates.
BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde said out of the 195 candidates in the first list, 28 are women, 27 are from the SC category, 18 from the ST category and 57 are from the OBC category.
PROMINENT FIGURES ON FIRST LIST
Tawde also announced that Union Home Minister Amit Shah will contest the elections from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will contest from the Porbandar seat. The party announced candidates for 15 out of 26 seats in Gujarat.
Further, the BJP announced that Union Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju will contest from Arunachal West seat, MP Tapir Gao from Arunachal East, MP Bishnu Pada Ray will contest from Andaman and Nicobar and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will contest from Assam’s Dibrugarh.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been fielded from the state’s Vidisha seat and Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna. Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur has been dropped and Alok Sharma will contest from the seat.
In Kerala, the BJP has fielded Union Ministers V Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Attingal and Thiruvananthapuram respectively.
In Rajasthan, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will contest from Bikaner, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has been fielded from Jodhpur, Union Minister Kailash Choudhary from Barmer, state party chief CP Joshi will contest from Chittorgarh, and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota.