Modi from Varanasi again

New Delhi: Close on the heels of the marathon meeting of the central election committee meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party that was held on Thursday, the BJP announced its first list of 195 candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections on Saturday evening. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be contesting from Varanasi for the third time, having earlier represented the constituency in 2014 and 2019.

The list includes the names of the 34 Union ministers, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani and two former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh) and Biplab Deb (Tripura) -- as well as Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who will fight again from Kota in Rajasthan. Chouhan has been fielded from Vidisha and Deb from Tripura West. Union ministers fielded by the BJP through the first list also included Mansukh Mandaviya, Jitendra Singh, Sarbananda Sonowal, Gajendra Shekhawat, Bhupender Yadav, G Kishan Reddy, Kiren Rijiju, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Arjun Munda.

Announcing the list, BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde said BJP would form the government for the third term under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also said that the party has been working on further expanding its footprint across various states and also to strengthen the National Democratic Alliance.

The list includes 28 women (Matru Shakti), 47 youth leaders, SCs 27, STs 18 and OBCs 57.

The announced names included those for nine seats in Telangana, 51 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 20 in West Bengal and five in Delhi.

From Telangana, the names that have been announced are that of Union Minister G Kishan Reddy from Secunderabad, Madhavi Latha for Hyderabad, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy Chevella, Bharat Nagarkurnool, Boora Narsaiah Goud Bhongir, Arvind Dharmapuri Nizamabad, Bandi Sanjay Karimnagar, B B Patil Zaheerabad and Eatala Rajender from Malkajgiri.

The list saw major changes for Delhi. Bansuri Swaraj, daughter

of the late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj,

will make her poll debut from the New Delhi seat.