Lok Sabha 2024: PM Modi to contest from Varanasi, Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Rajnath Singh from Lucknow; first list out

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the first list of candidates ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 today (March 2). 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will once again contest from Varanasi. BJP addressed the presser at the party headquarters in the national capital on Saturday.

PM Modi to contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, announced BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde today. BJP announced candidates on 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 9 seats from Telangana, 11 from Assam, 11 each from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 5 from Delhi, 2 from J&K, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh and 1 each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar and Daman & Diu.

Also Read: Assam: BJP announces list of Lok Sabha candidates, here is the list

"The list includes details regarding 34 Central Ministers and MoSs. It also included the name of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and two former CMs as well. 28 of these candidates are women. 47 candidates are under the age of 50. The list also has 27 SC candidates and 18 ST candidates. We are fielding 57 OBC candidates out of these 195," said Vinod Tawade. 

BJP repeated Kiren Rijiju, Tapir Gao from two Arunachal Pradesh seats for Lok Sabha polls. Sushma Swaraj's daughter Bansuri Swaraj to contest from New Delhi constituency. Amit Shah to contest from Gujarat's Gandhinagar again. 

Here is the full list of BJP candidates: 

> Amit Shah from Gandhinagar
> Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna
> Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram
> Geeta Koda from Singhbhum
> Vijay Baghel from Durg
> Brijmohan Agrawal from Raipur
> Pravin Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk
> Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi
> CR Patil from Navsari
> Dr Jitendra Singh from Udhampur
> Manish Jaiswal from Hazaribagh
> Arjun Munda from Khunti
> Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha
> Arjun Ram Meghwal from Bikaner
> Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar
> Jyoti Mirdha to contest from Nagaur
> Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Jodhpur
> CP Joshi from Chittorgarh
> Dushyant Singh from Jhalawar-Baran (Vasundhara Raje's son)
> Om Birla from Kota 
> Etela Rajender from Malkajgiri
> Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh
> Former CM Biplab Kumar Deb to contest from Tripura West 
> Dr Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan from Muzaffarnagar
> Dr Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida)
> Hema Malini from Mathura
> Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri
> Sakshi Maharaj from Unnao
> Rajnath Singh from Lucknow
> Smriti Zubin Irani from Amethi
> Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur
> Jagdambika Pal from Domariyaganj
> Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua from Azamgarh again
> Ravi Kishan from Gorakhpur
> Dr Sukanta Majumdar from Balurghat
> Locket Chatterjee from Hooghly

Pawan Singh from Asansol against Shatrughan Sinha in West Bengal
"In the recent past, names have come to the Center after the opinion poll in the state, after discussion on which, 195 seats out of 16 states and two union territories were finalized in the last Central Election Committee meeting," said Vinod Tawade.