LS poll: Kangana in, Varun out; BJP's list of 111 full of surprises

New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday named 111 more Lok Sabha poll candidates, dropping Union ministers Ashwini Kumar Choubey and V K Singh, and MP Varun Gandhi, while fielding actors Kangana Ranaut and Arun Govil.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan will contest from Sambalpur and the party's spokesperson Sambit Patra will try his luck again from Puri after losing out in a close contest in 2019.

Kerala BJP president K Surendra will contest from Wayanad, the seat from where incumbent MP and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi is again in the fray.

The BJP has fielded Rekha Patra, who party leaders said is one of the Sadeshkhali victims, from West Bengal's Basirhat constituency in a bid to corner the state's ruling Trinamool Congress.

The BJP named candidates for all 17 seats it is contesting in Bihar, renominating Union minister Giriraj Singh from Begusarai and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib.

Union ministers R K Singh and Nityanand Rai have also been fielded from their current seats, while in Uttar Pradesh the ruling party named 13 more candidates.

While it has denied the ticket from Pilibhit to Varun Gandhi, a three-term Lok Sabha MP who has often aired views deemed critical of his party's governments at the Centre and in the state, it has renominated his mother Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.

Jitin Prasada, a minister in the state government, is the party's choice from Pilibhit while Atul Garg replaces two-term MP V K Singh in Ghaziabad.

Hours before the party released the list, Singh said in a post on X that he is opting out of the polls. Three leaders who joined the BJP on Sunday figured in the list -- Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, Haryana Government minister Ranjit Chautala from Hisar (both in Haryana), and Varaprasad Rao from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

With this list of 111 candidates, the ruling party has named 398 nominees, excluding the four who withdrew after their names created controversy, for the elections to the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Ranaut, a vocal supporter of the BJP, will contest from Mandi in her home state of Himachal Pradesh, while veteran actor Arun Govil, famed for his role of Lord Ram in the popular TV serial "Ramayan", has been preferred to seasoned parliamentarian Rajendra Agrawal in Meerut by the ruling party.

Sita Soren, the sister-inlaw of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, is the BJP's candidate from Dumka. She had quit the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha a few days ago.

BJP names 4 more for K'taka, Anantkumar Hegde dropped

The BJP on Sunday announced four more candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka.

The party fielded Jagadish Shetter in Belagavi, displacing incumbent party MP Mangala Angadi.

Former minister K Sudhakar will be contesting from Chikkaballapur instead of sitting BJP MP BN Bachegowda.

Former Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri will be contesting from Uttara Kannada, sidelining incumbent MP and Hindutva ideologue Anantkumar Hegde who was involved in several controversies.

Raichur MP Raja Amareshwara Naik is the only one among the four who has been renominated.

The BJP had named 20 Lok Sabha candidates for Karnataka in its second list and the latest names take the number to 24. So far, 12 sitting MPs have been replaced.

It is being said that ally JD(S) will get three seats namely Hassan, Mandya and Kolar in addition, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s son-in-law Dr CN Manjunath is contesting on a saffron party ticket from Bengaluru Rural.

The only seat left is Chitradurga where Union Minister of State for Social justice A Narayanaswamy is the sitting MP. (PTI)