BJP’s 2nd list of candidates for Lok Sabha: Khattar from Karnal, Nitin Gadkari retains Nagpur
The BJP on Wednesday released the second list of 72 candidates which featured big names like Manohar Lal Khattar, Nitin Gadkari, Anurag Thakur, Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North), and Tejasvi Surya among others.
Manohar Lal Khattar will be contesting from Karnal, the announcement did not come as a surprise as Khattar resigned from the post of Haryana chief minister signalling his Lok Sabha innings. Union minister Nitin Gadkari retains his Nagpur seat after there was a little uncertainly as his name did not feature in the first list of the candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The remarkable mentions in the 2nd list are Ashok Tanwar (Sirsa), Manohar Lal Khattar (Karnal), Chaudhary Dharambir Singh (Bhiwani-Mahendragarh), Rao Inderjit Singh Yadav (Gurgaon), Anurag Singh Thakur (Hamirpur), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad), BY Raghavendra (Shimoga), Basavaraj Bommai (Haveri) Shobha Karandlaje (Bangalore North), Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South), Bharati Pravin Pawar (Dindori), Pankaja Munde (Beed), DK Aruna (Mahbubnagar), Trivendra Singh Rawat (Hardwar), Anil Baluni (Garhwal) Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur), Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North).
Nitin Gadkari not sidelined, retains Nagpur seat
The first list of the BJP which named Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani did not name Nitin Gadkari. As it set tongues wagging whether the BJP was sidelining Nitin Gadkari, Uddhav Thackeray asked Nitin Gadkari to leave the BJP and join his camp if the BJP was insulting him. Nitin Gadkari said the invitation was immature and ridiculous and added that BJP had a process to finalise the names.
BJP was in talks with its allies in Maharashtra before announcing the names as the second list contains many names from Maharashtra. In the state, BJP will be contesting together with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
Pratap Simha replaced in Karnataka
Pratap Simha, the MP who came under fire for signing the passes to those who intruded on Parliament in a major security breach, has been replaced from the Mysore seat by Yaduveer Krishnadatta Wadiyar of the erstwhile Mysore royal family.
Pankaja Munde from Beed
Pankaja Munde will be contesting from Beed, the seat that was represented by her sister Pritam Munde.
Who replaces Gautam Gambhir?
Harsh Malhotra will be contesting from East Delhi, the seat represented by Gautam Gambhir who expressed his desire to quit politics for his cricket commitments.