BJP releases first list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls

Minister Narendra Modi will contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi again, while BJP President Amit Shah will fight from Gandhinagar in Gujarat. 

Senior party leader and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh will fight from his sitting Lucknow seat, Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur and Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore from Jaipur Rural seat. The BJP last night released its first list of 184 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls covering 20 states. Senior party leader JP Nadda announced the name of candidates in New Delhi.

Union Ministers Smriti Irani will try her fate from Amethi Parliamentary constituency, DV Sadananda Gowda from North Bangalore, Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal West, Gen. VK Singh from Ghaziabad, Dr Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddh Nagar and actor turned politician Hema Malini from Mathura. 

Poonam Mahajan has been fielded from Mumbai North Central, Dr Jitendra Singh from Udhampur, Khalid Jahangir from Srinagar, KJ Alphons from Ernakulam and K Rajasekharan from Thiruvananthapuram.Baijayant Jay Panda who had joined BJP recently has been given ticket from Kendrapara in Odisha. 

The BJP Central Election Committee also approved names of 17 candidates for Bihar and it has



been sent to state committee for the announcement. On the other hand, the seat-sharing deal of the grand alliance comprising Congress, RJD and others will be announced in Patna this afternoon. 

Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) has announced a list of all 17 candidates for Lok Sabha elections in the state.At least half a dozen new faces have found a place in the list. 

For the Assembly elections, the BJP has released names of 100 candidates in Odisha. The leader of the party in the Assembly Kanak Vardhan Singhdeo has been again fielded from the Patnagarh seat while former Minister Jay Narayan Mishra will contest from Sambalpur. 

Former Minister Dr. Damodar Rout, who recently joined the BJP, leaving the BJD, will fight from the Ersama-Balikuda seat. 

The Congress also released the names of 45 candidates for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. It has also announced names for three candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in the state. 

They are Ramana Kumari Pedada from Vishakhapatnam, N Narasimha Rao from Vijaywada and J L Narasimha Yadav from Nandyal Parliamentary Constituency.