Lok Sabha elections 2024: Modi to fight again from Varanasi; 34 ministers in BJP's first list of 195 candidates

New Delhi: The BJP on Monday named Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Home Minister Amit Shah as well as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh among 195 names in its first list of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. All the leaders will contest from their respective seats. Of the 195 names the party announced, as many as 41 sitting MPs have been dropped.

With an aim to win 370 seats, the BJP has released these names at least a week ahead of the Election Commission announcing the elections, a change from 2019 when it had revealed the first list after the announcement of elections.

“Our party is confident of forming the government for the third term under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a much bigger mandate. We have been working on expanding our footprint across various states and geographies, as well as on strengthening the National Democratic Alliance,” general secretary Vinod Tawde said.

Some of the prominent names that will not be contesting include union ministers Meenakshi Lekhi, John Barla, Rameshwar Teli and former union minister Harshvardhan. The new faces that have been fielded include Bansuri Swaraj from the New Delhi seat instead of Lekhi, former chief minister Shivraj Chauhan from Vidisha, and former Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram against Congress heavyweight Shashi Tharoor.

The party is also fielding union ministers Bhupendar Yadav (Alwar), Sarbananda Sonowal (Dibrugarh) and Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), who are all currently Rajya Sabha MPs. Sonowal has fought from Dibrugarh in the past (in 2004) and Scindia was Guna MP till he was in the Congress.

Making the announcement at the party headquarters, Tawde said that the list includes, 34 union ministers and two former CMs (Shivraj and Biplab Deb from Tripura West). In all, 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 9 from Telangana, 11 each from Assam, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 5 from Delhi, 2 from Jammu and Kashmir, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh and one each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu were announced.

Among the union ministers who will be contesting the elections are Smriti Irani (Amethi), Gajendra Shekhawat (Jodhpur), Arjun Meghwal (Bikaner), Jitender Singh (Udhampur), Arjun Munda (Khunti), Nishith Pramanik (Cooch Behar), Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal East), PP Chaudhary (Pali), G Kishen Reddy (Secunderabad), Ajay Bhatt (Nainital), SP Singh Baghel (Agra), Sripad Naik (North Goa) and Shantanu Thakur (Bangaon). RS members Purshottam Rupala (Rajkot) and Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar) will contest, too.