It’s Varanasi again for PM Modi, Amit Shah replaces LK Advani

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah will replace party veteran LK Advani as the candidate from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat and is likely to become the number two in the next government if Narendra Modi retains power at the Centre.

BJP leader JP Nadda announced the names of 184 candidates from 20 states for the Lok Sabha elections on Holi after three rounds of meetings of its Central Election Committee on March 16, 19 and 20. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi, home minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, former party chief Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur and Smriti Irani from Amethi against Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

While Amit Shah is already a member of the Rajya Sabha and can become a Union minister if Modi retains power, the party chose him to replace Advani, who will turn 92 this November, from the Gandhinagar seat. This is aimed at quelling any dissent within the party that could have arisen had some other name been announced.

The move paves the way for the retirement of party veterans above 75 years.

Six Sitting UP MPs Get the Axe
Former Union minister Kalraj Mishra, MP from Deoria, had announced earlier in the day that he will not contest this time. Two other leaders above 75, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and BC Khanduri (who had announced he will not be contesting), do not figure in the list from Uttarakhand.

This has led to speculation about Murli Manohar Joshi, who’s 85, currently the MP from Kanpur. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who turns 76 in a month, may, however, be fielded from Indore.

The party will jointly announce the list of 40 candidates from Bihar with its allies, the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Janshakti Party, on Friday. The general election will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 with counting on May 23.

The BJP has dropped six sitting MPs from Uttar Pradesh in the first list of 28 names from the state and more are likely to follow. Ram Shankar Katheria, former minister of state for human resources development, has been replaced by UP government minister SPS Baghel in the Agra reserved seat. Shahjahanpur MP and Union minister Krishna Raj has been replaced by Arun Sagar.

Hema Malini will contest from Mathura, Union ministers Mahesh Sharma, VK Singh, Santosh Gangwar and Satyapal Singh from Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Bareilly and Baghpat in that order. Former Union minister Sanjeev Balyan and Kalyan Singh’s son Rajbir have been retained from Muzaffarnagar and Eta, respectively. Sakshi Maharaj has been fielded again from Unnao.

In Uttarakhand, the BJP has repeated Ramesh Pokriyal Nishank (Haridwar) and Ajay Tamta (Almora-SC). Tirath Singh Rawat will be the candidate from Garhwal (represented by Khanduri in 2014), while Ajay Bhatt replaces Koshiyari from Udham Singh Nagar. Mala Lakshmi Shah will contest again from Tehri Garhwal.

In Assam, Queen Ojha has replaced Bijoya Chakravarthy, who is over 75. Union minister Kiren Rijiju will contest from Arunachal-East and former state unit president Tapir Gao from Arunachal-West.

In Maharashtra, Poonam Mahajan will contest from Mumbai North-Central, Gopal Shetty from Mumbai-North, Union ministers Hansraj Ahir and Subash Bhamre from Chandrapur and Dhule, state unit president Raosaheb Danve from Jalna and Preetam Munde from Beed. Sujay Vikhe Patil, who moved to the BJP from Congress, will contest from Ahmednagar.

Union minister Jitendra Singh will contest from Udhampur and Jugal Kishore Sharma from Jammu.

In Karnataka, Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde will contest from Uttara Kannada, Shoba Karandlaje from Udupi Chikmagalur and BS Yeddurappa’s son Raghvendra from Shimoga. Umesh Jadhav, who switched to the BJP from Congress, will contest against Mallikarjun Kharge from the Gulbarga reserved seat. Union minister DV Sadanand Gowda will contest from Bangalore-North.

In Odisha, where the BJP is hopeful of improving its seat tally, former bureaucrat Aparajit Sarangi will be in the fray from Bhubaneswar, Baijyanant Panda from Kendrapara and Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo from Bolangir.

In Rajasthan, Union ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Arjun Ram Meghwal, PP Chaudhary and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will contest from Jaipur Rural, Bikaner, Pali and Jodhpur, respectively. Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh will contest from Jhalawar, while Om Birla will be in the fray from Kota. Former Union minister Nihal Chand, who was named in a sex scandal but exonerated later, will contest from the Ganganagar reserved seat.

In West Bengal, Union minister Babul Supriyo will contest from Asansol against Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate and actor Moon Moon Sen. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh will be in the fray from Medinipur, his predecessor Rahul Sinha from Kolkata-North, Anupam Hazra against actor and TMC candidate Mimi in Jadhavpur and Locket Chatterjee from Hooghly.

Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan has been fielded from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, while former Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajsekharan, who quit as Mizoram governor recently, will be the candidate against Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram. D Purandeswari will contest from Visakhapatnam and Kanna Lakshminarayana from Narasaraopet.