BJP names 111 more candidates for LS polls; fields actors Kangana Ranaut, Arun Govil

STATE TIMES NEWS

New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday named 111 more candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, dropping Union ministers Ashwini Kumar Choubey and V K Singh, besides MP Varun Gandhi, while fielding actors Kangana Ranaut and Arun Govil.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan will contest from Sambalpur and the party’s spokesperson Sambit Patra will try his luck from Puri once again after losing out in a close contest in 2019.
The party fielded Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, while Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada has replaced Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit. Sita Soren will fight from Dumka (Jharkhand).
The party has dropped ex-Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada constituency.
Actor Arun Govil, who played Ram in popular TV serial Ramayan, has been fielded by the BJP from the Meerut Lok Sabha seat.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who quit the bench recently and joined the BJP, has been fielded from West Bengal’s Tamluk seat.
Other prominent candidates include former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, party spokesman Sambit Patra from Puri, Andhra Pradesh unit chief D Purandeswari from Rajahmundry, and former Andhra Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who quit the Congress, from Rajampet.
In Bihar, the party has fielded Union Ministers RK Singh from Arrah, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Giriraj Singh from Begusarai. Former Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran, Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran, and Ram Kripal Yadav from Pataliputra also figure in the list.
JMM’s Sita Soren, who recently joined the party, has been fielded from Dumka (ST).
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish

Shettar, who recently returned to the party from the Congress, has been fielded from Belgaum and former state minister K Sudhakar from Chikballapur. In Kerala, state chief K Surendran has been fielded from Wayanad, where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting.
Sitting MP Varun Gandhi has been denied a ticket from UP’s Pilibhit and UP minister Jitin Prasad fielded in his place. Longtime Bareilly MP and former Union Minister Santosh Gangwar has also been dropped and Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar was named the candidate.
The BJP has fielded Atul Garg from Ghaziabad, as sitting MP and Union Minister, Gen VK Singh (retd) expressed his unwillingness to contest the polls.
In its fifth list, the party has announced candidates from Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, UP, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, among other states.