Modi in Varanasi, Rajnath lucknow, Jaitley heads for Amritsar
Putting the prolonged suspense over BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's lok Sabha constituency to a conclusive end, the party late on Saturday night announced he would contest from Varanasi, shifting sitting MP Murli Manohar Joshi to Kanpur. The candidature of Modi from Varanasi is expected to 'galvanise' votes in favour of the BJP "not only in UP but across Bihar and Madhya Pradesh."
BJP president Rajnath Singh would move to lucknow, shifting from Ghaziabad, and senior party leader Arun Jaitley has been fielded from Amritsar constituency in Punjab, BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar said at a Press conference while releasing the list of 55 candidates finalised for 12 States.
Making his electoral debut leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley will replace cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was called by the party leadership during the day and offered an option of contesting from three other seats, which he refused.
Bihari Babu Shatrughan Sinha managed to retain his Patna Saheb seat despite efforts by the Central leadership to shift him to a seat from Delhi. Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain confirmed to a TV channel late at night that Sinha's name was being discussed for Delhi, but he wanted to represent his old seat.
The BJP announced candidates from all the seven seats from Delhi. State party president Harsh Vardhan will contest from Chandni Chowk while Bhojpuri actor Manoj Tewari will be fielded from North-East Delhi. Mahesh Giri will contest from East Delhi and BJP spokesperson Meenakshi lekhi will try her luck from New Delhi constituency. Dalit leader Udit Raj, who recently joined the BJP, has been rewarded with North-West Delhi constituency.
Parmesh Verma will be the party's candidate from West Delhi and Ramesh Biduri will be fielded from South Delhi.Sitting MP from Aonla Maneka Gandhi will go back to her earlier lok Sabha seat of Pilibhit and her son and sitting MP from Pilibhit shift to Sultanpur. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharti will fight from Jhansi. Senior State leaders Kalraj Mishra will contest from Deoria and Ramakant Yadav from Azamgarh.
Sitting MP Aditya Nath is renominated from Gorakhpur seat, Ramesh Verma from Sitapur, Bharat Singh from Balia, Harish Diwedi (State General Secretary) from Basti and S Balian (Muzaffarnagar). Former Union Minister Santosh Gangwar has been nominated from Bareilly.
Film actress Kiron Kher and wife of Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, is BJP's candidate from Chandigarh. She will be pitted in a high-profile contest with AAP's Gul Panag and former Railway Minister PK Bansal of the Congress.
The fourth list of the BJP was released after a long-drawn meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) at 11, Ashoka Road, that started at 11.30 and continued (with a lunch break) a little over 10.15 pm. Presided by party president Rajnath Singh, the meeting was attended by Modi, Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nintin Gadkari, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and all other key members of the committee.
The list covered candidates from UP, Chandigarh, Sikkim, Andaman Nicobar, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar. Candidates for seven seats in Haryana were also announced that included Rao Indrajit Singh who had recently joined BJP, switching over from the Congress and Dharmveer from Bhiwani.
For Chhattisgarh 11 candidates have been announced which included Kamla Patle (Janjgir), sitting MP Saroj Pande from Durg and another sitting MP and senior central leader Ramesh Baish from Raipur. Two candidates from Punjab have also been cleared.
In Uttarakhand, the party fielded three former Chief Ministers - Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Haridwar, B C Khanduri from Pauri Garhwal and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari from Nainital.
BJP leader and grandson of late Prime Minister lal Bahadur Shastri, Siddharth Nath Singh, will be fielded from Phulpur, a constituency identified with the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.
Asked whether Modi could contest from Gujarat also, Ananth Kumar said: "There is every possibility". He said the list for Gujarat would be finalised on March 19, when the seat for senior leader lK Advani will also be announced.