New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday announced its fifth list of 111 candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. The saffron party has dropped Union minister Ashwini Choubey and Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi and fielded Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut from Mandi. Former Union minister and Mr Gandhi’s mother, Maneka Gandhi, has once again been fielded from Sultanpur, while Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan is fielded from Sambalpur and actor Arun Govil is given a ticket from Meerut.
The fifth BJP list includes six names from Andhra Pradesh, 23 from Bihar, one from Goa, six from Gujarat and four from Haryana. In addition to that, there are two from Himachal Pradesh, three from Jharkhand, four each from Karnataka and Kerala, three from Maharashtra, one Mizoram, 21 from Odisha, seven from Rajasthan, one Sikkim, two from Telangana, 13 from Uttar Pradesh and 19 from West Bengal.
While Mr Choubey was dropped, Union minister Gen. (retd) V.K. Singh announced that he will not contest the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections before the release of the BJP’s fifth list.
Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada has replaced Mr Gandhi in Pilibhit. Sister-in-law of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, Sita Soren, who recently joined the BJP, will contest from Dumka.
While the party's spokesperson Sambit Patra will try his luck from Puri once again after losing out in a close contest in the 2019 general election, former Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde has been dropped from the Uttara Kannada constituency.
In Andhra Pradesh, the BJP fielded former MP and YSR Congress leader Varaprasad Rao, who earlier in the day joined the saffron party, from Tirupati. The BJP has given ticket to D. Purandeswari from Rajahmundry, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy from Rajampet and C.M. Ramesh from Anakapalle.
In Bihar, the BJP has fielded Mithilesh Tiwari from Buxar, replacing Mr Chuabey. Former Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ram Kripal Yadav are once again fielded from Patna Sahib and Patliputra constituencies, respectively. Union ministers Nityanand Rai and R.K. Singh have been fielded from Ujiarpur and Arrah, respectively.
The BJP has fielded Pallavi Shrinivas Dempo from Goa South and industrialist Naveen Jindal, who recently joined the party, from the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat in Haryana. Haryana minister Ranjit Chautala, who also joined the saffron party on Sunday, is fielded from Hisar.
In Maharashtra, the BJP fielded MLA Ram Satpute from Solapur and retained MP Sunil Mendhe from Bhandara-Gondiya. The BJP also fielded Ashok Nete from Gadchiroli-Chimur in Maharashtra.
In Telangana, Aroori Ramesh and Tandra Vinod Rao have been fielded from Warangal and Khammam, respectively. In Uttar Pradesh, Atul Gar replaced Mr Singh in Ghaziabad, while Satish Gautam is once again fielded from Aligarh.
