BJP declares 54 candidates in first list for Lok Sabha 2014
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced its first list of
54 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and fielded former party president
Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur. The list was announced after a meeting of the party's central election committee.
It includes candidates for Jammu and Kashmir, Arunchal Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh and has several sitting and former parliamentarians. Former union minister
Shanta Kumar has been fielded from
Kangra in Himachal Pradesh while
Anurag Thakur, president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, has been retained as candidate from
Hamirpur.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP fielded state chief
Jugal Kishore Sharma from Jammu and state spokesman Jitender Singh from Udhampur. Other candidates from Jammu and Kashmir include
Thunpsthan Chhweang (Ladakh),
Mushtaq Ahmad Malik (Anantnag) and
GM Meer (Baramulla).
The BJP declared
17 candidates from
West Bengal, including former
lawmaker Tapan Sikadar (Dum Dum), state party president
Rahul Sinha (Kolkata Uttar), and magician
PC Sorcar Jr (Barasat).
Apart from Gadkari, 17 candidates declared from Maharashtra include sitting parliamentarians
Gopinath Munde (Beed),
Hansraj Ahir (Chandrapur),
Dilip Gandhi (Ahmadnagar) and former MP Kirit Somaiya (Mumbai North East).
The party fielded former
lawmaker Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal West and another former parliamentarian
Tapir Gao from Arunachal East.
Shripad Y Naik was retained from
North Goa and
Narendra K. Sawaikar has been fielded from
South Goa.
In Odisha, the BJP has fielded
Jual Oram from
Sundargarh and Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo from Bolangir. The party declared six candidates from Odisha. The party retained
Virender Kashyap as its candidate from Shimla.
Good news is that, none of these candidates have any corruption or criminal cases against them