Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to run for re-election in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, contesting from Varanasi once again. Out of the 195 candidates announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party, 34 are current Ministers from the Centre and States, with two former Chief Ministers also included in the list.
The BJP released its initial list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Saturday. Along with PM Modi, candidates include Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiran Rijiju, who will contest from Arunachal West, and other BJP MPs set to contest from various constituencies.
Key candidates in the list include Home Minister Amit Shah running from Gandhinagar, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh, and former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s daughter contesting from New Delhi.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow, while prominent leaders like Smriti Irani and Shivraj Singh Chouhan are also part of the candidate list.
The BJP has focused on diversity in its candidate selection, with significant representation of youth, women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBC/Backward Class candidates in the list.
The final list of 195 candidates was announced after a long meeting of the central election committee, attended by top BJP leaders and state representatives.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi secured a victory in Varanasi against Congress’s Ajay Rai. The BJP-led NDA won a total of 303 seats in the last election.
The Lok Sabha polls for this year are scheduled to be held in April-May.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from ANI)