New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday named 72 more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal and Anurag Singh Thakur, and former chief ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Basavaraj Bommai.
Gadkari will contest from Nagpur, while Piyush Goyal will fight the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Mumbai North.
Manohar Lal Khattar, who resigned as Haryana Chief Minister on March 12 and as an MLA on Wednesday, has been fielded from Karnal. Last time BJP won this seat by second largest margin in India.
BJP chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni has been fielded from Garhwal in Uttarakhand. In Delhi, the saffron party has fielded two new candidates -- Harsh Malhotra from East Delhi and Yogendra Chandolia from North West Delhi.
In Karnataka, Union minister Pralhad Joshi will fight from Dharwad while former chief minister B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra will contest from Shimoga. Tejasvi Surya, the BJP's youth wing chief, will seek re-election from Bangalore South. Yaduveer Krishnadatta Wadiyar of the erstwhile Mysore royal family replaces Pratap Simha as the BJP candidate in the Mysore seat. Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will contest from Haveri.
Shobha Karandlaje has been fielding from Bangalore North while PC Mohan has been given a ticket from Bangalore Central. Dr CN Manjunath will be the BJP candidate from Bangalore Rural while V Somanna will contest from Tumkur. Capt Brijesh Chowta will be the BJP candidate from Dakshina Kannada. Dr Umesh Jadhav will contest from Gulbarga (SC) and PC Gaddigoudar from Bagalkot.
Union Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Anurag Thakur will contest from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh while Maharashtra Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar will contest from Chandrapur.
Murlidhar Mohol will contest from Pune, while Dr Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil will contest from Ahmednagar. Pankanja Munde, daughter of late Union Minister Gopinath Munde, will fight the Lok Sabha polls from Beed in Maharashtra. Bharati Pawar will contest from Dindori (ST) while Sanjaykaka Patil has been fielded from Sangli.
Union Minister Raosaheb Danve will contest from Jalna, while Kapil Moreshwar Patil will be in the fray from Bhiwandi. Mihir Kotecha will be BJP's candidate from Mumbai North East. The BJP has reaffirmed its faith in Dr Heena Gavit, who will be fighting the polls from Nandurbar (ST).
BJP's Tripura East candidate Maharani Kriti Singh Debbarma is the sister of TIPRA Motha chief Pradyut Debbarma, who recently signed an agreement with the Centre. Kalaben Delkar will be the BJP candidate from Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Her husband allegedly committed suicide by accusing BJP leaders of pressure.
Vievk Sahu has been fielded from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. The other candidates fielded by BJP from Madhya Pradesh are Anil Firoziya (Ujjain SC), Shankar Lalwani (Indore), Bharti Pardhi (Balaghat), Savitri Thakur (Dhar ST).
Rao Inderjit Singh Yadav will be BJP's candidate from Gurgaon, while Krishan Pal Gurjar will be in the fray from Faridabad. Ashok Tanwar will contest from Sirsa while Banto Kataria will be the party's candidate from Ambala (SC). Chaudhary Dharambir Singh will contest from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh.
The JP Nadda-led party has also announced candidates for six seats in Telangana.
Earlier this month, the BJP had announced its first list of more than 190 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, due in April-May. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had figured in BJP's first list of candidates.
