Shivraj Could Get Vidisha, Vasundhara May Not Make The Cut: Buzz Over BJP Lok Sabha Poll List After Late-Night Meet

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to announce its first list of 100 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections within 24 to 48 hours. According to sources, the initial list will have names of most top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

The saffron party, which held a poll body meeting in the national capital to take a call on the first list of candidates for the elections scheduled in April-May late on Thursday night, plans to field former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Vidisha, the constituency from where late Sushma Swaraj (BJP leader and former External Affairs Minister) contested and won several times.

Meanwhile, the party has asked former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje not to fight the polls.

The list is likely to feature PM Modi, who will contest from Varanasi, Amit Shah, who will fight from Gandhinagar, Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur and Smriti Irani from Amethi.

The party is likely to announce its candidates on “weak seats” in Uttar Pradesh before the Election Commission releases dates for the Lok Sabha elections that are expected to be held in April-May.

The grand old party plans to field candidates from all 17 seats from Telangana and give tickets to three incumbent MPs, G Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Arvind Dharmapuri. BJP’s Soyam Bapu Rao, who lost his assembly seat in the last elections, is unlikely to get a ticket.

The saffron party plans to field a Hindu woman candidate against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will not contest from all 80 seats and will reserve some for its potential allies like Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In the last poll body meet, 56 UP seats were finalised.

However, Delhi is poised to see the biggest change as the BJP plans to field newcomers in four out of seven seats.

The BJP has been targeting at least 370 seats in the 2024 polls and has been seeking feedback from all leaders for the last few years. The party is considering responses from the NaMo app, too.

The leaders held discussions on the seats of Lok Sabha across about 17 states and set seals on more than 155 seats during Thursday’s key huddle, which began around 10:30 pm and lasted for more than four hours at the party headquarters.

BJP sources said that the names of candidates from Assam were discussed in the meeting, in which all Lok Sabha seats were filled with leaders from Assam. BJP will contest on eleven seats there, and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal could contest from Dibrugarh, while State Minister Rameshwar Teli could be sent to the Rajya Sabha. Discussions were also conducted on candidates for the seats in Jammu, while deliberations for Kashmir will take place in the next meeting.