Bureaucrat-turned-politician Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has been fielded from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat by the BJP while it announced the candidature of Shankar Lalwani as its candidate from Indore in place of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Lalwani is Chairman of Indore Development Authority and it is believed that Lalwani candidature is an indication of the end of the electoral politics for Mahajan.

The BJP also announced four of the seven candidates for the Lok Sabha election in Delhi and renominated its four sitting MPs. While Union Minister Harsh Vardhan will contest from his sitting seat of Chandni Chowk, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari will seek reelection from North-east Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi and Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi. Delhi will go to polls on May 12.

Puri’s candidature came as a surprise amid the speculation that the BJP can decide to field Bollywood actor Sunny Deol from Amritsar who met BJP chief Amit Shah recently. Sources said Deol could be the BJP candidate from Gurdaspur earlier represented by late Vinod Khanna. The Congress has already fielded Gurjit Singh Aujla from Amritsar which earlier represented by Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who had defeated Finance Minister Arun Jaitely.

Speculation remained for the New Delhi, East Delhi and North West (Reserve) seats currently held by Meenakshi Lekhi, Mahesh Giri and Udit Raj, respectively.

Party sources said there are likely to be a change in candidature of the remaining seats and cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir, who joined the ruling party recently, may be fielded from New Delhi Lok Sabha seat. Lekhi, Raj and Giri are likely to be dropped from the BJP list.