Lok Sabha elections 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party today (March 2) announced the names of candidates for 15 out of 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, dropping five sitting MPs and giving tickets to Union ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala. The BJP announced its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, to be held in the first half of the year, in the evening in New Delhi.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will fight from Gandhinagar, a seat he won with a huge margin in the 2019 polls, while Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil has been retained from Navsari.
Sitting MPs who have been denied tickets are former Union minister of state Mohan Kundariya from Rajkot, Ramesh Dhaduk from Porbandar, Kirit Solanki from Ahmedabad East, Parbat Patel from Banaskantha and Ratansinh Rathod from Panchmahal.
Union agriculture minister Parshottam Rupala, who hails from neighbouring Amreli district, will fight from Rajkot in place of Kundariya. Mandaviya, who is from Bhavnagar district, has been fielded from Porbandar in place of Dhaduk.
The BJP has fielded six-time MP and senior tribal leader Mansukh Vasava from Bharuch, which is one of the two seats given by the opposition Congress to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party as part of their INDIA bloc agreement.
AAP has already announced the name of its Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava from the Bharuch seat. Union minister of state for communications Devusinh Chauhan has been fielded from Kheda, which he won in 2014 and 2019. The two women in the first list of 15 candidates from the state are Jamnagar MP Poonam Madam and Rekhaben Chaudhary, who has been given a ticket for the first time from Banaskantha in place of Parbat Patel.
The BJP has given ticket to Dinesh Makwana in Ahmedabad West (Scheduled Caste) seat in place of Kirit Solanki, while in Panchmahal, sitting MP Ratansinh Rathod has been replaced by Rajpalsinh Jadav. The ruling party has retained Vinod Chavda from Kutch (SC) seat, Bharatsinh Dabhi from Patan, Mitesh Patel from Anand and Jaswantsinh Bhabhor from Dahod. In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won all 26 seats from the state.
Gujarat BJP workers awash in celebrations after party fields Amit Shah for Gandhinagar LS seat
The workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat switched over to the celebratory mood after the party announced to field Union Home Minister Amit Shah from the Gandhinagar seat in the upcoming General Elections.
Workers chanted slogans of 'baar baar Modi sarkar' and Bharat Mata ki jai as they burst crackers soon after the BJP announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, encompassing 16 States and 2 Union Territories with a total of 195 nominees.
BJP fields Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia from Rajasthan, denies ticket to 5 sitting MPs
The BJP released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, including 15 nominees for Rajasthan which has 25 seats. As per the first list, five Lok Sabha members in Rajasthan have been denied tickets this time.
While Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota, the BJP has also given tickets to two leaders who joined the saffron camp from the Congress recently. Accordingly, Jyoti Mirdha has been given ticket from Nagaur, while Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya will contest the polls from Dungarpur-Banswara.
While Mirdha had joined the BJP before the Assembly elections held last year-end, Malviya resigned from the post of Congress MLA a few days ago and joined the BJP. Meanwhile, the BJP has denied tickets to five sitting MP, including Kankamal Katara, who has been replaced by Malviya in Banswara (SC).
Ram Swaroop Koli has been given a ticket in place of Ranjita Koli from Bharatpur (SC), Rahul Kaswan's ticket has been cancelled from Churu and given to Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia, Lumbaram Chaudhary has been made the candidate from Jalore-Sirohi in place of Devji Patel, while Mannalal Rawat has replaced Arjunlal Meena in the Udaipur (ST) reserve seat.
In 2014, the BJP had won all the 25 seats in Rajasthan. In 2019, BJP had left the Nagaur seat for Hanuman Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) as part of an alliance. While Beniwal won, the BJP swept the remaining 24 seats.
CEC meeting
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP's National President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh, Chief Ministers, State Presidents, In-charges, Co-Incharges, and Election In-charges of various states were present in this meeting. Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Assam, Uttarakhand, and Goa were present at the meeting.
Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi secured a victory in Varanasi with 6,74,664 against Congress's Ajay Rai. The BJP-led National Democratic (NDA) won a total of 303 seats, leaving the grand-old party behind at 52 seats. The Lok Sabha polls are slated to be held in April-May this year.
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