New Delhi:

The BJP replaced as many as 33 sitting MPs with new faces as it released its first list with names of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.

In the list, the BJP announced its candidates for 11 Lok Sabha seats in Assam. Of them, six candidates are sitting MPs while the other five are new faces.

The party has fielded Parimal Suklabaidhya from Silchar Lok Sabha constituency, won by Rajdeep Roy in the 2019 general elections.

From the Autonomous District (ST) seat, currently held by BBJP MP Horen Singh Bey, party nominee Amar Singh Tisso will contest.

Bijuli Kalita Medhi will contest from Gauhati Lok Sabha seat which is held by Queen Oja. Ranjit Dutta will contest from Tezpur Lok Sabh seat which was won by Pallab Lochan Das in 2019.

The BJP has named Union Minister Sarbanand Sonowal as its candidate from Dibrugarh constituency, dropping sitting MP Rameswar Teli.

In the list of the BJP candidates for 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, four faces are new.

From Janjgir Champa (SC) constituency, party nominee Kamlesh Jangde will contest the election, instead of sitting MP Guharam Ajgalley. From Raipur, senior BJP leader Brijmohan Agrawal will enter the fray, not Sunil Kumar Soni who won the seat in 2019.

From the state’s Mahasamund seat, BJP nominee Roop Kumari Choudhary will contest the Lok Sabha poll, instead of sitting MP Chunni Lal Sahu. Sitting MP Mohan Mandavi was replaced by BJP nominee Bhojraj Nag on Kanker (ST) seat.

The BJP named five candidates for Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, four of them replacement of sitting MPs.

The party has named Praveen Khandelwal as its candidate from Chandani Chowk Lok Sabha Sabha seat, dropping two-term MP and former Union minister Harsh Vardhan.

For the West Delhi seat, BJP replaced two-term MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma with Kamaljeet Sehrawat. It named Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, as its candidate from New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, currently held by Union minister Meenakshi Lekhi.

From South Delhi, BJP named Ramvir Singh Bidhuri as its candidate, dropping Ramesh Bidhuri.

The BJP named its candidates for 15 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, dropping five sitting MPs.

From Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat, party nominee Rekhaben Hiteshbhai Choudhary will contest, instead of sitting MP Prabhatbhai Savabhai Patel. On Ahmedabad West (SC) seat, Dineshbhai Kidarbhai Makwana replaced three-term MP Kirit Solanki.

For Rajkot Lok Sabha seat, the BJP named Union minister Parshottam Rupala as its candidate, dropping sitting MP Mohanbhai Kalyanji Kundariya.

The party named Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for the Porbandar seat, currently held by party MP Rameshbhai Lavjibhai Dhaduk.

From Panchmahal seat in Gujarat, BJP nominee Rajpalsinh Mahendrasinh Jadhav will join the fray, instead of sitting MP Ratansinh Magansinh Rathod.

In Jharkhand, BJP fielded Manish Jaiswal from Hazaribagh seat, which is currently held by Jayant Sinha, son of former Union minister Yashwant Sinha.

On Lohardaga (ST) seat, three-time MP Sudarshan Bhagat was replaced by Samir Oraon.

In its list of candidates for Madhya Pradesh, the BJP replaced seven sitting MPs with new faces.

The party named Bharat Singh Kushwaha for the Gwalior Lok Sabha seat, instead of its sitting MP Vivek Narayan Shejwalker.

It dropped sitting MP from Guna, Krishnapal Singh Yadav, to field Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from the seat.

BJP nominee Lata Wankhede will join the fray from Sagar Lok Sabha seat, which is currently held by Rajbahadur Singh. Virendra Khatik will contest from Tikamgarh (SC) seat.

The BJP has dropped Vidisha MP Ramakant Bhargava to name former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as its candidate from the seat.

Alok Sharma will be its candidate from the Bhopal seat, currently held by Sadhvi Pragya Singh.

From Ratlam (ST) seat, currently held by BJP MP Guman Singh Damor, party nominee Anita Nagar Singh chauhan will contest.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The BJP is expected to release a first list of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections this evening, sources said. The list that is said to be announced at a BJP press conference at 6 pm comes days after back-to-back late night meetings in Delhi. The BJP may also announce new allies in the National Democratic Alliance or NDA, they said.

The BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) met on Thursday night as its members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, held deliberations to finalise the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April-May. The ruling party is looking to name its candidates for the Lok Sabha seats before the Election Commission’s poll schedule announcement. The meeting was attended by leaders from various staes – Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gujarat’s Bhupendra Patel, Madhya Pradesh’s Mohan Yadav, Chhattisgarh’s Vishnu Deo Sai, Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Singh Dhami and Goa’s Pramod Sawant. State leaders usually attend the CEC meeting when candidates for constituencies in their states are discussed.

Earlier, the sources told NDTV that the BJP may announce more than 100 names that will include heavyweights such as PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP, the sources claim, intends to name most of its candidates well before poll dates are announced to ramp up pressure on its rival, the Congress-led INDIA bloc, which is still facing roadblocks in seat-sharing deals in many states.

As per the sources, the BJP is likely to follow its template of recent assembly polls and announce karge number of the seats in the first list where it needs to improve its prospects.