BJP releases list of 184 candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha Elections

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi, BJP National President Amit Shah will contest from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat replacing BJP's senior leader and current MP of Gandhinagar LK Advani.

HIGHLIGHTS

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi

2. State President Amit Shah will contest from Gandhinagar

3. Advani's name was nowhere in this list of 184 candidates

4. Union home minister Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow

5. Union minister Nitin Gadkari will contest from Nagpur

6. Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh will contest from Ghaziabad

7. Union minister for textiles Smriti Irani will once again contest from Amethi

BJP released its first list of candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections last night. In the list of 184 candidates, the names of many senior BJP leaders were seen, such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Hema Malini, Sakshi Maharaj. The biggest amazement in the first list is dropping of Advani who was replaced by BJP National President Amit Shah, who will make his LS poll debute from Gandhinagar seat. Previously, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani contested from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. He was representing the Gandhinagar LS seat since 1998. It is speculated that after Advani's name was not mentioned in the list released by the BJP, it may be that Advani's political life has now ended.

Union Minister Smriti Irani will again contest from Amethi, which is known as Gandhi family's fortress. The fiery leader Smriti had already lost from Amethi in LS elections 2014 from Rahul Gandhi.

The BJP has also bet on some of their old horses. Union Minister V K Singh, Mahesh Sharma, Kiren Rijiju, D V Sadananda Gowda, Babul Supriyo have been renominated from Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Arunachal West, Bengalore North and Asansol, respectively.

In the first list of 184 candidates, 16 are from Maharashtra, 8 from Assam, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh, 5 from J&K and Chhtisgarh each, 21 from Karnataka, 13 from Kerala, 10 from Odisha, 16 from Rajasthan, 5 from Tamil Nadu, 10 from Telangana, 5 from Uttrakhand, 28 from West Bengal and 2 from Andhra Pradesh.

The general election will be held in seven phases across all the 29 states and 7 UT of India from April 11 to May 19, 2019. The counting of the votes has been scheduled for May 23 and results will likely be declared on the same day.

Here's List of 184 Candidates released by BJP:-