Nine union ministers on BJP's second list for Lok Sabha elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released the second list of 72 Lok Sabha (LS) candidates on Wednesday, fielding nine Union ministers and two Rajya Sabha MPs, including Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari and Anurag Thakur.

Goyal will contest the forthcoming polls from the Mumbai North seat in his LS debut and his colleague in the Union Cabinet, Nitin Gadkari, will recontest from his Nagpur seat. Thakur is the BJPs candidate from Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur, a seat he first won in a 2008 bypoll and represented in 2009, 2014, and 2019.

The trio is joined by Union ministers Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad), Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurgaon), Krishan Pal Gurjar (Faridabad), Bharti Pawar (Dindori), and Bhagwant Khuba (Bidar). Union minister Shobha Karandlaje will contest from Bangalore North instead of her sitting seat of Udupi-Chikmaglur.

 

The BJP had released its first list of 195 candidates on March 3, from which two of its candidates dropped out. With this, the BJP has announced candidates for 265 Lok Sabha seats.

Of the 72 seats announced on Wednesday, the BJP had won 64 in 2019. There are 15 women in the list. With this, the BJP has fielded 53 women of the 265 candidates announced (20 per cent). However, it has dropped several of its sitting MPs, including former Union minister Sadananda Gowda and Ramesh Pokhriyal.

The BJP’s second list features three former chief ministers. Former Karnataka chief minister (CM) Basavaraj Bommai will contest from Haveri, Manohar Lal Khattar — who quit as Haryana’s CM on Tuesday — from Karnal, and former Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat from Haridwar. In its first list, the BJP had fielded three former CMs — Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Biplab Deb.

Several Telangana leaders who quit other parties, mainly Bharat Rashtra Samithi, figure in the BJP's second list. In the Tripura East seat, the BJP fielded Maharani Kriti Singh Debbarma, sister of Pradyot Debbarma, the Tipra Motha chief and a scion of the erstwhile Tripura royal family.

In its second list,  Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni, whose term expires in April, will contest from Garhwal, where the party has dropped the sitting MP — former Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat.

In Karnataka, cardiac surgeon C N Manjunath, who is former prime minister H D Deve Gowda’s son-in-law, will contest from the Bangalore Rural constituency on a BJP ticket against Congress’ D K Suresh, the brother of Deputy CM D K Shivakumar.

Of the 72 candidates announced on Wednesday, the BJP has named two candidates each in Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Himachal, seven in Gujarat, six each in Haryana and Telangana, 20 each in Karnataka and Maharashtra, five in Madhya Pradesh, and one each in Tripura and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The BJP is negotiating alliances with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka, and with the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar Faction) and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

Of the 20 candidates it announced in Maharashtra, eight are new faces, including Pankaja Munde, who will contest from Beed, replacing her sister Pritam, who won in 2014 and 2019.

The BJP has fielded state forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar from Chandrapur, a seat it had lost in 2019. The party replaced Jalgaon MP Umesh Patil with local leader Smita Wagh, while Anup Dhotre replaced his father, sitting Akola MP, Sanjay Dhotre. From Pune, the party fielded former mayor Murlidhar Mohol. Legislator Mihir Kotecha replaced Manoj Kotak, the sitting Mumbai North-East MP.

The BJP announced two remaining candidates from Delhi, having announced five earlier. Harsh Malhotra, a former cricketer, will contest from East Delhi, replacing Gautam Gambhir and Yogendra Chandolia, who replaces Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans, will contest the North West Delhi reserved seat. The party has replaced six of its seven sitting MPs in Delhi.

In Karnataka, the BJP replaced nine of its sitting MPs, including Sadananda Gowda, former state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and Prathap Simha. Mysuru royal scion Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar will contest Mysuru seat in place of Simha.  From Bellary, the party has dropped its sitting MP and fielded former minister B Sriramulu. BY Raghavendra have been re-nominated from and Shimoga. The party has replaced GM Siddeshwar with his wife Gayatri in Devanagere. Tejasvi Surya, the BJP youth wing president, will again contest from Bangalore South.

In Haryana, former Congress  and Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashok Tanwar will contest from Sirsa, replacing sitting MP Sunita Duggal. Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar will seek re-election from Gurgaon and Faridabad respectively.