BJP candidate list 2: Nitin Gadkari to contest Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari will contest the Lok Sabha polls for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Maharshtra’s Nagpur, according to the second list of candidates released by the party on Wednesday.
The former BJP president, Nitin Gadkari is one of the longest serving ministers of the Narendra Modi government, and had assumed the charge of Road Minister in 2014.
He has also served as the Minister of Shipping, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Currently also, Gadkari is a Member of Parliament from Nagpur.
Earlier today, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray again asked Gadkari to leave the BJP if he is being “insulted”. Thackeray said that Sena (UBT), the Maharashtra opposition, would ensure his victory in Lok Sabha elections.
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BJP releases second list of candidates
The BJP, in its second list, named 72 more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi and Anurag Singh Thakur.
Former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Basavaraj Bommai, and Trivendra Singh Rawat also made it to BJP’s second list.
Khattar, who resigned from the post of Haryana’s Chief Minister yesterday (March 12), will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Karnal.
The party had fielded its chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni from Uttarakhand’s Garhwal.
In Delhi, BJP has introduced two new candidates for the Lok Sabha polls– Harsh Malhotra from East Delhi and Yogendra Chandolia from North West Delhi.
Union minister Pralhad Joshi will fight from Dharwad in Karnataka, while former chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra will contest from Shimoga.
The BJP had announced its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls earlier this month. The list contained over 190 names.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are slated for April-May.
(With agency inputs)
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Changes in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat
In the second list announced on Wednesday evening, the party announced 20 candidates each from Karnataka and Maharashtra, seven from Gujarat, six each from Haryana and Telangana, five from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and one each from Tripura and Dadar and Nagar Haveli.
Also Read: Lok Sabha 2024: Key BJP vs Congress contests to watch out for as parties release two candidate lists
Out of 20 candidates in the Karnataka list, nine MPs, including former state unit chief Nalin Kateel and two-term Mysore MP Prathap Simha, have been changed. Simha, whose name cropped up in the Parliament security breach row, has been replaced by Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar of the Mysore royal family. US-educated Wadiyar is the adopted son of Pramodadevi Wadiyar, whose late husband, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, represented the Mysore Lok Sabha seat four times in the 1980s and 1990s.
In Maharashtra’s list of 20 seats, six sitting MPs, including Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North and Manoj Kotak from Mumbai North East, have been dropped by the party to be replaced by debutants. Shetty has been replaced by Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who will be contesting the Lok Sabha election for the first time. Goyal had made it to the ministry by being elected through the Rajya Sabha until now. And Manoj Kotak has been replaced by Mihir Kotecha in the Mumbai North East seat.
Likewise, for the Beed constituency, two-time MP Pritam Munde has been replaced with her sister Pankaja Munde, a BJP national secretary and two-term former MLA from the state. Both are daughters of former Union Minister and BJP leader late Gopinath Munde. In June last year, Pritam Munde had extended her support to the wrestlers demanding action against Wrestling Federation of India Chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
In Gujarat, too, the list of seven candidates announced on March 14 has five new names. Among those who have been replaced include Surat MP Darshana Jardosh. She has been replaced by Mukesh Dalal, a former standing committee chairman of the BJP-ruled Surat Municipal Corporation. In the March 2 list too, the BJP had fielded five new faces among the 15 candidates.
Of the six candidates declared in Haryana in the second list, two have been replaced. Ashok Tanwar, who deserted Aam Aadmi Party in January this year, has replaced sitting MP Sunita Duggal from Sirsa.
Similarly of the five Madhya Pradesh candidates declared in the second list, two MPs have been dropped. A fresh face Vivek Sahu, has been fielded against Congress leader Nakul Nath in the Chhindwara constituency, the only seat the BJP had lost in the state in 2019. One MP has been replaced from Telangana’s Adilabad, while the sitting MPs have also been dropped in Tripura, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
