BJP's first list has 195 names; 21% sitting MPs dropped

The BJP on Saturday announced the names of 195 candidates from 16 states and two union territories for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections that are likely to be announced by 11 March.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

The BJP on Saturday announced the names of 195 candidates from 16 states and two union territories for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections that are likely to be announced by 11 March. The party has denied tickets to at least 43 sitting Members of Parliament who had won in 2019.

The fact that it has not gone for a large-scale surgery, as party leaders had indicated earlier, indicates that the BJP does not want to play with the status-quo too much and has replaced only those candidates against whom there were serious complaints from the party workers and leaders.

The seats from where it has replaced its sitting MPs include: Silchar, Autonomous district, Gauhati, Tejpur, Dibrugarh in Assam; Sarguja, Rajgarh, Janjgir-Champa, Bilaspur, Raipur, Mahasamund, Kanker in Chhattisgarh; Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi in Delhi; Banaskantha, Ahmedabad West, Rajkot, Porbandar, Panchmahal in Gujarat; Lohardaga, Hazaribagh, Singhbhum in Jharkhand; Morena, Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Damoh, Siddhi, Jabalpur, Hoshangabad, Vidisha, Bhopal, Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh; Churu, Alwar, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara in Rajasthan; Nagarkurnool in Telangana; Tripura West in Tripura; and Alipurduar in West Bengal.