Suresh Gopi

New Delhi: Before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has released the list of candidates for the first phase. Candidates for 195 seats in 16 states have been announced. 34 Union Ministers and two former Chief Ministers were included in the first phase list. There are 28 women candidates in the list. All prominent leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have made it to the first list. This time too, the Prime Minister will seek popular vote from Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi. Modi is contesting from here for the third time. Candidates for 12 seats in the Union have also been announced. Meanwhile, candidates have not been announced in any constituency in Tamil Nadu.

Before announcing the election date, the BJP is trying to put pressure on the All India alliance by announcing the party’s candidates. The first phase candidate list was finalized in the BJP’s central election committee meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Dev Sai, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and others attended the meeting.

The first phase list was released in the beginning of March as early declaration of the candidate list will help the candidates to get enough time for the election campaign. Last time a similar strategy was adopted in Madhya Pradesh and this time the same strategy is being adopted nationwide. BJP’s target is to announce 50% candidates before March 10. BJP has followed the same strategy in 2019 as well. Before announcing the election date, 164 candidates were announced.

Candidate selection in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat is crucial for the BJP. The announcement of the candidates of eight constituencies in the first phase list is part of the effort to gain an advantage by assembling the best candidates in Kerala, where the party has not yet opened an account in South India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the NDA is targeting 400 seats this time. The leaders estimate that BJP can win 370 seats.

Prominent leaders shortlisted in the first phase and the contested constituencies

∙ Narendra Modi – Varanasi

∙ Amit Shah – Gandhinagar

∙ Kiran Rijiju – Arunachal West

∙ Manoj Tiwari – North East Delhi

∙ Sarbananda Sonobal – Debrugarh

∙ Bansuri Swaraj – New Delhi

Those who have been included in the first phase candidate list from Kerala

∙ Kasaragod – M.L. Ashwini

∙ Vadakara – Praful Krishnan

∙ Malappuram – Dr. Abdul Salam

∙ Palakkad – C. Krishna Kumar

∙ Thrissur – Suresh Gopi

∙ Alappuzha – Shobha Surendran

∙ Kozhikode – MT Ramesh

∙ Pathanamthitta – Anil Antony

∙ Atingal – V.Muralidharan

∙ Thiruvananthapuram – Rajeev Chandrasekhar

2024-03-02 13:04:42
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