Manohar Lal Khattar, Nitin Gadkari in BJP's second list of 72 candidates for Lok Sabha polls

New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday announced its second list for the Lok Sabha polls, announcing former Haryana chief minister ML Khattar, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Anurag Thakur, Pralhad Joshi, Shobha Karanadlaje and Piyush Goyal as well as chief spokesperson and in-charge of the media cell Anil Baluni among key names.

In a list of 72 names, the party packed in a few surprises, dropping as many as 30 sitting MPs, including two former chief ministers as well as Union minister of state of railways Darshana Jardosh. The party, on the other hand, also fielded three former chief ministers.

Former Haryana CM ML Khattar, who resigned from his position on Tuesday, will contest from Haryana’s Karnal, former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai from Haveri, and former Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat will contest from Haridwar. In Uttarakhand, the party has dropped two former CMs, Nishank Pokhriyal (Haridwar) and Tirath Singh Rawat (Garhwal).

While Union ministers Gadkari, Thakur and Joshi have been fielded from their respective seats of Nagpur, Hamirpur and Dhadwad, Rajya Sabha MP Piyush Goyal has been fielded from Mumbai (North) and Baluni from Garhwal. It will be the first Lok Sabha contest for Goyal and Baluni. Karandlaje’s Udupi-Chikmagalur seat has been shifted to Bangalore North.

The BJP has given a ticket to Pankaja Munde from Maharashtra’s Beed whose current MP is her sister Pritam Munde. In Tripura (East), the party has fielded Kriti Singh Debbarma, who is the sister of Tripra Motha chief Pradyot Debbarma, who entered the NDA recently.

The party has made way for two councillors in Delhi in this list by dropping two celebrity faces – Harsh Malhotra from East Delhi and Yogendra Chandolia from North West Delhi – dropping cricketer Gautam Gambhir and singer Hans raj Hans. Gambhir had announced his retirement from politics a few days ago. In all, the party has changed six of the seven sitting MPs in Delhi.

The party has also overlooked Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal to give a ticket to former Youth Congress chief Ashok Tanwar. In Gujarat, the party has dropped five faces among the seven names it announced.

In Maharashtra, state minister and former state unit chief Sudhir Mungantiwar has been fielded from Chandrapur, and sitting Akola MP Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre’s ticket has been given to his son Anup Dhotre. In Mumbai, the party has also dropped sitting MPs Gopal Shetty (North Mumbai) and Manoj Kotak (Mumbai North East), who has been replaced by MLA Mihir Kotecha.

In Telangana, the party has fielded DK Aruna from Mahbubnagar, who had been a state minister in the Congress government before shifting to the BJP in 2019. In Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the party fielded Kalaben Delkar, who is a sitting MP in the seat, winning it in 2019 under a Shiv Sena ticket.