Looking to get the first-mover advantage in the Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP has released its first list of candidates, declaring names for 67 out of the state’s 90 constituencies. The list includes the names of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who will be contesting from the Ladwa constituency, and former minister Anil Vij.

Mr Vij will be the BJP’s candidate from the Ambala Cantonment constituency, a seat he has won three successive times since 2009.

Mr Saini, who was an MP from Kurukshetra until he replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as the Haryana chief minister in March this year, currently represents the Karnal Assembly seat, which he won in a bypoll in June. 

The other candidates include Ambala Mayor and former Union Minister Vinod Sharma’s wife Shakti Rani Sharma, who will be contesting from the Kalka assembly constituency. Ms Sharma is the mother of Manu Sharma, a convict in the Jessica Lal murder case. 

Shruti Choudhry who left the Congress and joined the BJP with her mother – Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhry – in June has been given a ticket from Tosham. Three former legislators from the Jannayak Janata Party, which was the BJP’s ally until this year, have also been fielded. These are Devender Singh Babli from Tohana, Ram Kumar Gautam from Safidon and Anoop Dhanak from Uklana. 

Some of the other inclusions are Deepak Hooda from Meham, who has been the captain of the Indian Kabaddi team, and Union Minister Om Prakash Dhankar, who will be contesting from Badli.

The party has decided to drop some MLAs, including some ministers, and the list includes eight women. 

MP Naveen Jindal’s mother, Savitri Jindal, who was widely expected to get a ticket from Hisar, has not made the cut and the party has decided to stick with the incumbent, Kamal Gupta, who is also a state minister.

The upcoming elections in Haryana will be crucial for the BJP, especially because it won only five of the state’s 10 Lok Sabha seats after sweeping all of them in 2019. It will be an opportunity for the party to prove that it remains popular with voters after failing – for the first time in 10 years – to achieve a majority on its own in the general elections.

The Congress, which is seen to be gaining ground in the state, is also likely to pose a challenge and could emerge stronger if its alliance talks with INDIA partner AAP are successful. The party believes it has a strong chance of dislodging the BJP, which has ruled Haryana since 2014. 

Haryana will vote on October 5 and counting will be held on October 8. 

Bhopal:

In the BJP’s list of 195 candidates announced on Saturday, 24 are for the 29 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh. As the party looks to better its stupendous record of winning 28 seats in 2019, it has given tickets to former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia while replacing controversial MP Pragya Singh Thakur in Bhopal with another candidate.

Ms Thakur is one of six sitting MPs who have been denied tickets and 13 sitting MPs have been repeated.

Two-and-a-half months after he stepped down as BJP’s longest-serving chief minister in the country to make way for Mohan Yadav, Mr Chouhan, who has been named the candidate from Vidisha, told NDTV: “I am grateful to the central leadership, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.”

The former chief minister, who won the seat five times between 1996 and 2005, insisted there were “no ifs” as far as his chances in the upcoming polls were concerned. “I am very close to the people of Vidisha, we are like family. The roadmap for Vidisha is ready. The BJP will win all 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh and the state will put 29 garlands on PM Modi,” he said.

Vidisha is considered one of the BJP’s fortresses in the country and was won by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1991 and former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj in 2009 and 2014.

Union Minister and former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has been named the candidate from Guna, a seat he had held since 2002 until his loss to the BJP’s Krishna Pal Singh Yadav in 2019.

Loyalists Rewarded

At least four of Mr Chouhan’s loyalists have got tickets. Former Bhopal mayor Alok Sharma (who lost from the Bhopal Uttar seat in last year’s Assembly elections) has been fielded from Bhopal, state Kisan Morcha head Darshan Singh Chaudhary from Hoshangabad and sitting MP Rodmal Nagar from Rajgarh.

Anita Nagar Singh Chouhan, who is the wife of the former chief minister’s loyalist, Nagar Singh Chouhan, has been named the candidate for the Ratlam-Jhabua (ST) seat.

Bharat Singh Kushwah, a loyalist of Assembly Speaker and former Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, has been given a ticket from the Gwalior seat despite losing the Assembly polls from the Gwalior Rural constituency last year. Two other loyalists of Mr Tomar, sitting MP Sandhya Rai and former MLA Shivmangal Singh Tomar, have been named as candidates from the Bhind (SC) and Morena seats respectively. These constituencies are in the Gwalior-Chambal region.

MPs Denied Tickets

Apart from Ms Thakur, five other sitting MPs have also been denied tickets.

While Jyotiraditya Scindia has got the ticket from Guna in place of KP Singh Yadav, Rajbahadur Singh, the sitting MP from Sagar, has been replaced by former Women’s Commission chairperson Lata Wankhede.

Anita Nagar Singh Chauhan has replaced GS Damor in Ratlam-Jhabua,

Ramakant Bhargava has made way for Shivraj Chouhan, and former minister Bharat Singh Kushwah getting the ticket in Gwalior meant that Vivek Shejwalkar did not.

The 13 sitting MPs who have been fielded again from their seats include Union minister and 3-time MP Virendra Kumar, who will contest from the Tikamgarh-SC seat. Virendra Kumar Khatik, the seniormost sitting MP, has got the Lok Sabha election ticket for the eighth time.

State BJP chief VD Sharma will contest from Khajuraho, Himadri Singh from Shahdol (ST), Ganesh Singh from Satna and six-time MP Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla (ST). Both Mr Singh and Mr Kulaste had contested the Assembly polls and lost.

In the list of 24 candidates, eight are from the OBC community, five are Brahmins and four are women.

New Delhi:

Ahead of the expected announcement of the Lok Sabha polls by the Election Commission next month, the BJP is likely release the names of a whopping 100 candidates on Thursday. The list is expected to feature both of the party’s heaviest hitters – Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah – sources have told NDTV.

The Central Election Committee of the BJP is likely to meet on Thursday, the sources said, adding that the announcement of the first list of candidates may be made after that. The first list will be crucial because the ruling party has set itself a mammoth target of winning 370 of 543  seats and is working towards securing 400 seats for the NDA. 

Replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha earlier this month, PM Modi had hinted at the troubles of the opposition INDIA bloc and said that it seemed that the opposition parties had lost the courage to contest elections. “I can gauge the mood of the nation, it will definitely give the NDA more than 400 seats and the BJP at least 370 seats,” he had said, before repeating the party’s “Ab ki baar, 400 paar” slogan.