Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced its first list naming 184 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in April this year. In the list, top BJP leaders have been listed to contest the LS poll including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh. However, the BJP has dropped the named of its co-founder and veteran leader LK Advani.
From Mumbai, the BJP declared the names of the current MPs Gopal Shetty and Poonam Mahajan to contest the LS elections from city’s North and North-Central constituency. However, the suspense regarding the Mumbai North-East seat still remains. Kirit Somaiya is currently an MP from the same constituency.
Earlier, while forming a pre-poll alliance with the BJP, Shiv Sena had laid down certain conditions, one of which was that no candidature shall be given to Kirit Somaiya. Sena had declared that it won’t campaign for Somaiya but will work to defeat him in the polls. In the political circle, there are speculations that BJP can change the candidate for Mumbai North East seat who falls in accordance with Sena.
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In Mumbai, Shiv Sena and BJP will contest LS poll on three seats each. BJP has already announced the candidates for two LS seats in the city. Of the 16 names declared in Maharashtra for LS polls, 14 listed are the current MPs of the concerned seat while two new candidates have been listed in Ahmednagar and Latur LS constituency.