Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, Actor Arun Govil who played Ram in popular TV serial Ramayan, former judge of Calcutta High Court, Justice Abhijit Ganguly, and Industrial Navin Jindal (who resigned from the Congress today) are figured in the BJP's fifth list of candidates for seats in 16 States for the Lok Sabha elections, released on Sunday.
BJP sitting MPs Varun Gandhi, Union Ministers General VK Singh (Retd), Anant Kumar Hegde and Ashwini Chowbey are among those who have been dropped for the Lok Sabha polls. There has been no announcement on embattled MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India.
Industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who joined the BJP today, has been fielded from the Kurukshetra seat in Haryana. Jindal who quit the Congress and joined the BJP on Sunday, represented Kurukshetra constituency in Lok Sabha between 2004-14 as a Congress MP, said he wants to contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of "Viksit Bharat". Jindal further stated that the dream of having a Ram temple in Ayodhya has also been realised.
Actor Arun Govil, who played Ram in popular TV serial Ramayan, has been fielded by BJP from Meerut Lok Sabha seat. The BJP named Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut as the party Lok Sabha candidate from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.
After Ranaut's name was announced from Mandi, she said she was elated to officially join the party. "My beloved Bharat and Bhartiya Janta own party, Bharatiya Janta Party has always had my unconditional support, today the national leadership has announced me as their Lok Sabha candidate from my birth place Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency), I abide by the high command's decision on contesting Lok Sabha polls. I feel honoured and elated to officially join the party. I look forward to be a worthy karyakarta and a reliable public servant," Kangana Ranaut posted on X.
In 2022, Ranaut said she has a keen interest in politics but has no plans to enter it professionally. The news of Ranaut taking the political plunge comes months after she hinted at entering electoral politics when she offered prayers at Gujarat's Dwarkadhish temple in November 2023.
As part of the fifth list, a total of 111 candidates have been fielded for seats in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Odisha, Mizoram, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh. The party gave Lok Sabha ticket to former judge of Calcutta High Court, Justice Abhijit Ganguly, from Tamluk. He is the first retired judge to join electoral politics, moving away from the way the judiciary has so far distanced itself.
Arjun Singh and Tapas Roy, who recently rejoined the BJP from the TMC, will contest the Barrackpore and Kolkata North seats respectively. Senior leader K Surendran will contest against Rahul Gandhi from Kerala's Wayanad.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will contest from Sambalpur and the party's spokesperson Sambit Patra will try his luck from Puri once again after losing out in a close contest in 2019.
The party fielded Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, while Uttar Pradesh Minister Jitin Prasada has replaced Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit. Sita Soren will fight from Dumka (Jharkhand).
The BJP dropped Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and allotted the seat to former Congress leader Jitin Prasad. The party has replaced General VK Singh (Retd) from Ghaziabad and allotted the seat to Atul Garg. Singh on Sunday informed that he will not be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as he wants to serve the country in a different way. Taking to social media platform X, Singh informed that he will not be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha Election 2024.
The BJP has dropped former Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada constituency, Union Minister Ashwini Choubey has been dropped from Buxar. New entrant Sita Soren will contest from Dumka.
Other remarkable mentions from the 5th list are Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, Giriraj Singh from Begusarai, Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Jagadish Shettar from Belagaum, K Sudhakaran from Chikkaballapur, Pratap Sarangi from Balasore, Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneshwar,
From Uttar Pradesh, it has fielded Raghav Lakhanpal from Saharanpur, Sarvesh Singh from Moradabad, Satish Gautam from Aligarh, Durviksy Singh Shakya from Badaun, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar from Bareilly, Ramesh Awasthi from Kanpur, Rajrani Rawat from Barabanki, Dr Arvind Gaud from Bahraich.
From West Bengal, it has fielded Dr Jayanta Roy from Jalpaiguri ( SC), Raju Bista from Darjeeling, Kartick Paul from Raiganj, Silbhadra Dutta from Dum Dum, Swapan Majumdar from Barasat, Arup Kanti Digar from Arambagh (SC), Agnimitra Paul from Medinapur, Ashim Sarkar from Bardhaman Purba ( SC) and Dilip Ghosh from Bardhaman-Durgapur.
The BJP announced its candidates for 17 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, dropping three sitting MPs, including Union Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey. According to the list Choubey, who was elected from Buxar for the second consecutive term in 2019, was replaced by Mithilesh Tiwari, a senior BJP leader and a former MLA. The party also dropped its incumbent MPs Chedi Pawasan and Ajay Kumar Nishad from Sasaram and Muzaffarpur constituencies respectively.
The BJP fielded former MLA Shivesh Ram for Sasaram, while Raj Bhushan Nishad, a greenhorn in the Lok Sabha polls, will contest the Muzaffarpur seat on a party ticket.Vivek Thakur, a Rajya Sabha member, was fielded from Nawada, where the BJP would be contesting this time, instead of its ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).All the remaining 14 candidates are sitting MPs, who will seek re-election from their respective seats.
The BJP announced the names of its candidates for 18 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, while dropping four sitting MPs from the list. The nominees for Cuttack, Jajpur and Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituencies are yet to be named by the party. The party has fielded four women - Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar), Sangeeta Kumari Deo (Bolangir), Malvika Keshari Deo (Kalahandi) and Anita Subhadarshini (Aska). The sitting MPs who were denied BJP tickets this time are Suresh Pujari (Bargarh), Union Minister Bisheswar Tudu (Mayrbhanj), Nitish Gang Deb (Sambalpur) and Basant Panda (Kalahandi). The party has nominated Pradeep Purohit in place of Pujari while Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan replaced Nitish Gang Deb in Sambalpur.
Rairangpur MLA Naba Charan Majhi has replaced Bisheswar Tudu in Mayurbhaj seat. Malvika Keshari Deo is made the new candidate in place of Basant Kumar Panda in Kalahandi LS seat.
The sitting MPs who have been retained are Jual Oram (Sundergarh), Pratap Chandra Sarangi (Balasore), Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo (Bolangir) and Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar).
The other BJP candidates are Ananta Nayak (Keonjhar), Abhimanyu Sethi (Bhadrak), Rudra Pany (Dhenkanal), Baijayant Panda (Kendrapara), Balabhadra Majhi (Nabarangpur), Bibhu Tarai (Jagatsinghpur ), Sambit Patra (Puri), Pradeep Panigrahy (Berhampur) and Kaliram Majhi (Koraput).
In Rajasthan, the party has retained two sitting MPs -- Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria of Tonk-Sawai Madhopur and Bhagirath Chaudhary from Ajmer. Chaudhary was fielded in the assembly elections in December last year but he lost the polls.
Rao Rajendra Singh has been given ticket from Jaipur Rural and Shubhkaran Chaudhary from Jhunjhunu. Both are former MLAs.
At the same time, the BJP has given tickets to new faces Priyanka Balan (Ganganagar), Manju Sharma (Jaipur) and Mahima Vishweswar Singh (Rajsamand).
