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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has so far named 267 candidates and unveiled its second candidate list of 72 names for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday. Approximately 21% of current Members of Parliament are not re-elected from their respective seats.
Out of the 195 candidates listed in the first list, only 33 MPs were replaced; in contrast, 30 MPs were replaced in the 72-name second list. 140 sitting MPs have been repeated overall, and 67—two of whom chose not to run—have not received tickets.
In the second list, there are twenty candidates from each of the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, seven from Gujarat, six from Telangana and Haryana, five from Madhya Pradesh, two from Delhi, one from Dadra, and one from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
All sitting MPs in the nation’s capital were replaced by the party, with the exception of Manoj Tiwari of North East Delhi. Harsh Vardhan, Meenakshi Lekhi, Pravesh Sahib Singh, and Ramesh Bidhuri are the five out of the six MPs that were removed this time. They have all held their seats since 2014.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared candidates in Maharashtra for 20 out of the 23 seats it won in the 2019 elections. Among the candidates announced on Wednesday are Piyush Goyal, Raosaheb Danve, and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. 14 of the 20 MPs whose names were announced were repeated, and five of them had their tickets revoked. Pankaja Munde replaced her sister Pritam Munde in the Beed family stronghold.
Just three of the seven current MPs from Gujarat were re-elected, with some notable exceptions such as Mukesh Bhai Chandrakant Dalal in Surat, where Darshana Jardosh was fielded.
Similarly, out of the six declared candidates in Haryana, three current MPs were re-elected. The wife of the party’s late leader and former member of parliament Rattan Lal Kataria, Banto Kataria, was the BJP’s nominee from Ambala, a seat that was rumored to be sought after by former Haryana minister Anil Vij. Additionally, Suneeta Duggal, the Haryana MP from Sirsa, was dismissed in favor of Congressman Ashok Tanwar.
Most of the Telangana candidates who received Lok Sabha tickets from the BJP are former members of the Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
“Out of 15 MP candidates finalised so far, as many as 10 candidates are defectors from other parties in the last four to five years. The genuine and loyal leaders have been ignored,” a BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.
Two MPs from the five Madhya Pradesh candidates listed in the second list have been added again, and two others have been removed, according to NDTV. Ten sitting Members of Parliament, including Pragya Thakur of Bhopal, were removed from the first list.
Out of the 20 declared candidates, 11 MPs in Karnataka were replaced. In a significant move, Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar of the Mysuru Royal family has taken Pratap Simha’s seat in the Mysuru constituency. Shobha Karandlaje, a Vokkaliga leader, has been transferred to the Bengaluru North constituency. Former BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel has also been removed from the list, and Dakshina Kannada candidate Captain Brijesh Chowta is now running.
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