BJP's lists of Lok Sabha candidates: Of give and take, and long wait

414 Lok Sabha seats for which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named its candidates (until Sunday evening). In 2019, the BJP contested on 436 seats

14 seats that BJP won in 2019 still await candidate declaration by the party. These are Ladakh, Chandigarh, Mumbai North Central, Hoshiarpur, Asansol (which it lost in a bypoll in 2022), and 9 in Uttar Pradesh.

2 seats in UP, including 9 that the BJP won in 2019, await candidate declaration, including Kaiserganj, represented by former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Prayagraj, Phulpur, Deoria, Bhadohi, Ballia, Firozabad, Kaushambi and Machhlishahr.

 

The BJP has allocated UP’s Baghpat seat, which it won in 2019, to ally Rashtriya Lok Dal. The party has vacated some other seats it had won in 2019 for its allies, such as Kolar in Karnataka for the Janata Dal (Secular) and Sheohar in Bihar for the Janata Dal (United). It will contest Bihar’s Nawada seat that ally Lok Janshakti Party won in 2019.

In the northeast, the BJP has not fielded its candidates for Meghalaya’s Tura and Shillong seats; it performed poorly in these seats 5 years ago. It has announced support for ally National People’s Party on these seats. Five years ago, the BJP contested both Manipur seats, winning the Inner Manipur seat. This time, it has announced it will not contest the Outer Manipur seat and support ally Naga People's Front.

The BJP has dropped almost a third of its sitting MPs.