The Bharatiya Janata Party today announced its first list of candidates for the national elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi again and the party's national president Amit Shah has replaced veteran leader LK Advani in Gujarat's Gandhinagar.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will contest from Nagpur as expected. Union Minister Smriti Irani will take on Rahul Gandhi from Amethi again.
Lok Sabha polls, to be held in seven phases across the country, begin April 11 and the counting of the votes will be held on May 23.
The party, earlier in the day, released its list candidates for the assembly elections in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Here the highlights on the BJP's first list for national elections:
Sujay Vikhe Patil, who quit Congress recently, has been offered the seat he wanted to contest from - Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. The seat was a point of contention between the NCP and Congress, which has allied in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha polls. The exit of Sujay Vikhe Patil, Maharashtra opposition leader Radhakrihna Vikhe Patil, came as setback to Congress.
As BJP announced its first list for the national elections, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said he will win with a better margin this time. "Party has expressed its faith in me, I will win with an even better margin this time. People of Nagpur supported me last time as well. They are happy with our work, we will do even better after getting elected again," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
A Congress bastion for decades, the listing squarely sets Smriti Irani up for a second fight with party chief Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Read here
Union Minister Jitendra Singh will file nominations tomorrow from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhapmpur, he told news agency PTI today. Piyush Goyal is likely to accompany him as he files nominations.
Reactions poured in on social media soon after the announcement as users mentioned the candidates and their rivals with the hashtag #BJPFirstList
This should be interesting.#bjpfirstlist pic.twitter.com/VSiSyqsGHm
- Varun Venkatesh (@Varun_003) March 21, 2019
#BJPFirstList 20 states have been covered in BJP's first list... All 17 seats in Bihar have been cleared by CEC and the list of names have been sent to the state election panel. The list will be released by NDA soon:
- चौकीदार Totlani Krishan (@kktotlani) March 21, 2019
Amit Shah to contest from Gandhinagar😎#BJPFirstList
- Arpit Vira આર્પીટ વીરા🇮🇳 (@ArpitRohitVira) March 21, 2019
Jugal Kishore to contest from Jammu, Dr @DrJitendraSingh from Udhampur, Sofi Yousuf from Anantnag. Khalid Jehangir will contest from Srinagar: Shri @JPNadda pic.twitter.com/WkMlFua09n
- BJP (@BJP4India) March 21, 2019
See BJP's full list
1st PRESS RELEASE of Lok Sabha Election 2019 on 21.03.2019 by NDTV on Scribd
PM To Contest From Varanasi, Amit Shah Gandhinagar; BJP First List OutPM To Contest From Varanasi, Amit Shah Gandhinagar; BJP First List Out
- Amethi: Smriti Irani
- Arunachal East- Kiren Rijiju
- Srinagar- Khalid Jahangir
- Udhampur- Jitendra Singh
#LokSabhaElections2019 dates: See when your state votes https://t.co/0iju6J34cH#ElectionsWithNDTV #ElectionCommission pic.twitter.com/tKsUT56bCw
- NDTV (@ndtv) March 11, 2019
BJP Central Election committee meeting at BJP HQ, New Delhi. pic.twitter.com/ueTTUdhrBG
- Chowkidar Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 20, 2019
