BJP's 10th list for Lok Sabha polls out; Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher dropped

BJP’s 10th list for Lok Sabha polls out; Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher dropped

Rajya Sabha MP Neeraj Shekhar, the son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, and former Union minister S S Ahluwalia figured in the 10th list of nine candidates announced by the BJP on Wednesday for the Lok Sabha election.

The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP finalised the list which includes seven candidates from Uttar Pradesh, one each in Chandigarh and West Bengal.

The party has fielded Rajya Sabha MP Neeraj Shekhar from Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia. The BJP has fielded Sanjay Tandon from the lone Lok Sabha seat of Chandigarh, replacing the sitting MP Kirron Kher.

The party earlier fielded Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh from West Bengal’s Asansol, who has now been replaced by sitting BJP MP SS Ahluwalia. Meanwhile, TMC has fielded veteran actor and politician Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol Lok Sabha seat.

Neeraj Shekhar was a Lok Sabha MP from 2007 to 2014, representing SP from Ballia, the constituency earlier held by his father. In 2014, Shekhar lost the polls to his BJP rival and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

He was not fielded by the SP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after that, he quit the SP and joined the BJP which sent him to the Upper House of Parliament.

The BJP has named Paras Nath Rai from Ghazipur Lok Sabha seat who will take on Afzal Ansari, a candidate of the Samajwadi Party and Congress alliance.

The BJP has fielded B.P. Saroj from Machhlishahr (SC) Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP’s candidate Jaiveer Singh Thakur will contest from Mainpuri, a Samajwadi Party’s bastion. The SP re-nominated Dimple Yadav from the seat.

BJP’s candidate Vinod Sonkar will contest from Kaushambi (SC) Lok Sabha seat while the party’s candidate Praveen Patel will contest the elections from the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP has fielded Neeraj Tripathi from Allahabad.

The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19.

Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election.

The counting of votes will take place on June 4. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won 303 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 52 seats.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won 282 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) grabbed 44 seats.