The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday released its second list of candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections. The list, bearing 72 names for seats spread across 11 states, includes Union minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Khattar from Karnal. Khattar resigned as CM on Tuesday and as an MLA today.
Union minister Piyush Goyal has been fielded from Mumbai North while his Cabinet colleague Anurag Thakur will contest from Hamirpur. Pankaja Munde has been fielded from Beed in Maharashtra while Union minister Piyush Goyal will contest from the Mumbai North constituency.
The party has fielded Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha chief Tejasvi Surya from Bangalore South while Union minister Pralhad Joshi will fight from Dharwad. Former CM BS Yediyurappa’s son BY Raghavendra will contest from Shimoga.
The party announced Harsh Malhotra as its Lok Sabha candidate from East Delhi and Yogendra Chandolia from North West Delhi. The list also includes three former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand) and Basavaraj Bommai (Karnataka).
The party has also decided to replace Pratap Simha with Yaduveer Krishnadatta Wadiyar of the erstwhile Mysore royal family as the BJP candidate in the Mysore seat. Kriti Singh Debbarma is another royal on the list. She will contest the elections from Tripura East.
This is the second list released by the party. The first list, released on March 2, contained 195 names from 16 states and two Union Territories. The first list included Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar among other notable candidates.
The release of the second list comes ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule which may happen any day now. PM Modi has set a target of NDA to win 400 seats in the general elections this time. The BJP, on the other hand, has set a target of 370 seats for itself.