Narendra Modi to contest from Varanasi, Amit Shah to replace LK Adavani from Gandhinagar: BJP’s first candidate list

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. He had retained this seat after winning two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah will be the party’s candidate from Gandhinagar, where LK Advani is the current parliamentarian. The BJP announced its first candidate list on Thursday with 184 candidates, and Advani’s name does not figure on this list.

Union minister Smriti Irani will contest from Amethi – where Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be her main opponent. Irani had lost to Gandhi in 2014.

Union minister Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow and Nitin Gadkari will contest from Nagpur – these are the seats they had both won in 2014 as well. Minister VK Singh will contest from Ghaziabad.

In Rajasthan, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant will contest.

Among other important seats, parliamentarian Hema Malini will contest from her existing seat, Mathura, and Sakshi Maharaj will contest from Unnao.

Today’s list has names of 28 candidates from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, 21 from Karnataka, 16 from Maharashtra, 13 from Kerala, 10 each from Odisha and Telengana, eight from Assam, five from Tamil Nadu, five each from Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, two each from Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh, one each from Gujarat, Sikkim, Mizoram, Lakshadweep and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.