Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Giriraj Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Sambit Patra among 111 names in BJP's 5th list

Maneka Gandhi retains Sultanpur seat while Varun Gandhi has been dropped from Pilibhit.

New Delhi: With the inclusion of a few surprises and some celebrity faces, the BJP on Sunday dropped its fifth list of 111 candidates, fielding actors Kangana Ranaut and Arun Govil, while dropping Varun Gandhi, one of its oldest Parliamentarians Santosh Gangwar, General VK Singh, SS Ahluwalia, and Ananth Kumar Hegde.

In turn, the party has fielded union minister and Rajya Sabha MP Dharmendra Pradhan, former Karnataka CM Jagdish Shettar, recent JMM export Sita Soren, spokesperson Sambit Patra, senior party leader Jay Panda, industrialist Pallavi Dempo and Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay. 

UP minister and former Congressman Jitin Prasada has been fielded from Varun's former seat Pilibhit, while his mother Maneka Gandhi retains the Sultanpur seat. The party has also fielded Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra and Ranjit Chautala from Hisar who had both just joined the party minutes before the list was announced. Against Rahul Gandhi, the BJP has fielded its Kerala president K Surendran from Wayanad. 

The list has been prepared after the party’s central election authority, the Central Election Committee met on Saturday night, after PM Modi returned from his Bhutan visit. Prior to the CEC meeting, president JP Nadda and union minister Amit Shah met the PM to apprise him about the seat-sharing developments and the political situation after the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. 

In West Bengal, the party has dropped SS Ahluwalia to field Dilip Ghosh from the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, who has been shifted from Medinipur. And contrary to buzz that foreign secretary Harsh Shringla will be fielded from the seat, Raju Bista has been retained in Darjeeling. In Basirhat, under which the Sandeshkhali constituency comes, the party has fielded Rekha Patra, who filed the FIR in the case. 

In Uttar Pradesh, Rajnath Singh aide Atul Garg has been fielded from Ghaziabad after VK Singh bowed out of the contest earlier Sunday evening. Satish Gautam has been retained from his Aligarh seat. In Hathras reserved seat, the party has dropped Rajvir Singh Diler to field Anoop Valmiki. One of the party’s oldest parliamentarians, union minister Santosh Gangwar has been dropped from the Bareilly seat; fields Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar. 

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan will contest from Sambalpur in Odisha and Rajya Sabha MP Jay Panda will contest from Kendrapara, a seat he held formerly as a Parliamentarian from Biju Janata Dal. Spokesperson Sambhit Patra has been fielded once again from Puri, a seat he had lost to BJD’s Pinaki Mishra. The party has retained Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneshwar), Jual Oram (Sundargarh), Pratap Chandra Sarangi (Balasore). 

The party has retained former Bihar state president Sanjay Jaiswal from his Paschim Champaran seat, national vice-president Radha Moan Singh from Purbi Champaran, spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy from his Saran seat, as well as union ministers Nityanad Rai and Giriraj Singh from Ujiarpur and Begusarai, respectively. Senior leader and spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad has been fielded from Patna Sahib for the second time and former Lalu Prasad aide Ram Kirpal Yadav has been fielded from the OBC-majority Pataliputra seat. 

In Andhra, the party has fielded general secretary D Purandeshwari (Rajahmundry), former CM Kiran Kumar Reddy (Rajampet), and Rajya Sabha MP CM Ramesh (Annakapalle). Giving in to the protest of its karyakartas, the BJP changed two candidates in Gujarat in this list – the Sabarkantha candidate Bhikhaji Thakor has been dropped to make way for Sobhnaben Mahendrasihn Baraiya and in Vadodara, Ranjan Bhatt made way for Hemang Yogeshchandra Hoshi. Both had withdrawn yesterday. 

JMM supremo Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren, who had just joined the BJP recently, has been fielded from Dumka.