New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday declared 111 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in its latest list. This did not include Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi’s name. Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada, who joined the BJP in 2021, was fielded from his seat instead. The BJP, however, has fielded Varun’s mother, Maneka Gandhi, from UP’s Sultanpur.
The party has also dropped senior leader General V.K. Singh (retd.) from Ghaziabad and fielded Atul Garg instead. Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut will contest from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi, and Kerala BJP chief K. Surendran will fight against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad. Actor Arun Govil, who essayed the role of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, will contest from UP’s Meerut. BJP Bihar General Secretary Mithilesh Tiwari will fight from Buxar (Bihar) instead of MP Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
Earlier in the day, V.K. Singh shared his decision to stay out of the 2024 polls in a post on X. “I have dedicated my entire life to the service of this nation as a soldier. For the last 10 years, I have worked tirelessly to fulfil the dream of making Ghaziabad a world-class city,” Singh said. “I will not contest the 2024 elections. This decision was not easy for me, but I have taken it from the bottom of my heart. I want to take my energy and time in new directions where I can serve my country differently.”
“Your love, support and faith have always inspired me. Going forward, I will continue my service to the country and all the citizens, just in a new form,” added Singh.
Also read: ‘Abki baar, 400 paar’ is no mere slogan. It’s crucial to Modi’s agenda if he gets third term
Why Varun Gandhi was dropped
A senior party leader told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity that the party dropped Varun Gandhi as he has been a “vocal critic” of the policies of the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh.
“At a time when leaders remained quiet and followed the party line, he embarrassed the party by showing it as anti-farmer, and in Lakhimpur Kheri, even demanded action against party colleague Ajay Mishra Teni in the aftermath of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident,” the BJP leader said.
“He also criticised policies of his own party’s government, including on burning issues like unemployment and the economy. After all that, if he expected the party to field him, I would be surprised. No one is bigger than the party,” added the BJP leader.
The party also considered the fact that Varun never attended any party programmes, including parliamentary or other meetings, the BJP leader further said.
For the first time in 25 years, a Gandhi family member will not be fighting from Pilibhit. Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi have been contesting elections from the seat since 1989.
“His mother has not been dropped as she has behaved like a party person and never made anti-party statements publicly. At the same time, the party had last time considered and fielded both, but, as a rule, only one from a family can be fielded; we have followed that policy again,” added the BJP leader.
In 2024, Varun Gandhi tried to make amends by thanking Modi for the developmental work in his parliamentary constituency, bit it was “too little, too late”, state functionaries told ThePrint.
Barabanki MP Upendra Rawat, caught in a scandal involving obscene videos, was also dropped, and Raj Rani Rawat fielded from his seat.
Former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who joined the BJP earlier in the day, has been fielded from his seat in Haryana’s Kurukshetra.
In Odisha, where the BJP has decided to go solo rather than form an alliance, the party has fielded Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Sambalpur, Jual Oram from Sundargarh, Sambit Patra from Puri, Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, and Baijayant Panda from Kendrapara.
In Bihar, the BJP has fielded Giriraj Singh from Begusarai, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib.
Sita Soren, Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law who recently switched from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), has been fielded as the BJP candidate for Jharkhand’s Dumka.
Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar will contest from Karnataka’s Belgaum.
Also read: Why Maharashtra’s non-Marathi outfits are objecting to a tie-up between BJP & Raj Thackeray’s MNS
New faces and old hands
A BJP leader told ThePrint that the list shows how the party wants to promote ‘new faces’ and ensure the ‘right mix’ of celebrities and ground workers to ensure it crosses the 370 mark.
“In some cases, young faces replaced veteran leaders and, in some seats, the party has relied on star power. The decisions take into account survey reports and feedback received from several quarters,” said the leader.
My beloved Bharat and Bhartiya Janta’s own party, Bharatiya Janta party ( BJP) has always had my unconditional support, today the national leadership of BJP has announced me as their Loksabha candidate from my birth place Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency) I abide by the high…
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) March 24, 2024
“The party has to win the maximum number of seats, and every seat is important. The party also wants to develop a new crop of leaders and has fielded some first-timers,” added the leader.
National BJP spokesperson R.P. Singh also said the list is mixed, with new faces and old hands. “At the same time, party functionaries who have toiled hard for the party have also been fielded. The aim is simple — to win maximum seats,” he said.
In West Bengal, the party has announced 19 candidates, picking Sandeshkhali’s Rekha Patra, the woman whose statement before the magistrate led to the arrest of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Shahjahan, to contest from the TMC bastion of Basirhat. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is currently investigating allegations of landgrab and violence in Sandeshkhali.
The BJP has retained Darjeeling MP Raju Bista. Former IFS officer Harsh Vardhan Shringla was projected as the candidate for this seat as he had settled in Siliguri for public outreach for the party. Bista, however, had won the 2029 Lok Sabha election by the biggest margin from West Bengal.
Former Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, who once used to have a say in ticket distribution and has received credit for the wins of 18 BJP leaders in the 2019 elections, has been shifted from his constituency, Medinipur, to fight for the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat. The BJP has dropped sitting MP S.S. Ahluwalia from there. The party’s state leaders believed pitching a woman against actor-turned-TMC MLA June Maliah from Medinipur would be beneficial and fielded Agnimitra Paul, its sitting MLA from South Asansol. Similarly, former Union minister of state for woman and child development Debasree Chaudhuri has been shifted to Kolkata Dakshin to fight against sitting TMC MP Mala Roy.
BJP MP Arjun Singh, who joined the TMC after the 2021 assembly polls, only to return to the BJP last week, has been given the Barrackpore ticket again. Miffed over ticket distribution, Arjun Singh removed photos of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from his office to reinstate Prime Minister Modi’s before rejoining the BJP in New Delhi.
The BJP has fielded former TMC MLA Tapas Roy against his former party colleague TMC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay from Kolkata Uttar. The party has also fielded former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay from Tamluk, which is known as the “Adhikari” bastion since Suvendu Adhikari first became a TMC MP from the seat in 2009.
The BJP is yet to announce the candidates for Jhargram, Birbhum, Asansol, and Diamond Harbour, where Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee is the sitting MP.
In Kerala, Surendran, who will fight against Rahul Gandhi, is a senior party leader and has contested all three Lok Sabha elections since 2009 and four assembly elections. In 2016, Surendran had lost the Manjeshwar assembly seat by a mere 86 votes. Actor G. Krishna Kumar will contest from Kollam. A member of the BJP national council, Krishna Kumar lost the 2021 assembly elections from Thiruvananthapuram.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has dropped Satyendra Pachauri from Kanpur. Pachauri, too, had taken to social media to inform the party he would not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Former minister Atul Garg will contest from Ghaziabad and Ramesh Awasthi from Kanpur.
Budaun MP Sanghmitra Maurya, daughter of controversial backward community leader Swami Prasad Maurya, has been dropped too. According to sources, there is little likelihood of the BJP fielding Maurya from another seat. Durvijay Singh Shakya will contest in her place.
Barabanki MP Rawat, retained as the candidate in the first list of the BJP, has been dropped in the second list. The move came days after several obscene videos, purportedly showing Rawat with foreign women, went viral. Rawat opted out of fighting elections after the controversy, with the BJP fielding Raj Rani Rawat from the seat.
The BJP has also denied a ticket to eight-time Bareilly MP Santosh Gangwar, fielding Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar instead.
With inputs from Sreyashi Dey & Shikha Salaria
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: BJP to go solo in Odisha, no alliance with Naveen’s BJD. ‘Why lose the anti-incumbency vote?’