Union minister Smriti Irani is among the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates whose names figured in the party’s first list for Lok Sabha elections. The list was declared by Union minister JP Nadda on Thursday evening and covered 20 states.

The Union textiles minister has been renominated from the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency from where Rahul Gandhi is contesting the election. This is the second time that she has been pitted against the Congress president.

She was fielded by the BJP in the 2014 elections to make inroads in the Gandhi family pocket borough. She did lose the battle, but managed to succeed in reducing the Congress leader’s victory margin to one lakh votes in 2014, down from three lakh five years earlier.

Soon after the BJP list was declared on Thursday evening, Irani posted a series of tweets. She congratulated all the candidates, urging them to work together to ensure party’s success in the elections.

Congratulations to all the candidates announced by @BJP4India. Let us together work for #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar by ensuring lotus blooms in every constituency.

— Chowkidar Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) March 21, 2019

Irani also thanked PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for ‘giving her the responsibility of fighting from Amethi’.

अमेठी से लोकसभा चुनाव लड़ने की ज़िम्मेदारी देने के लिए प्रधानमंत्री @narendramodi जी, अध्यक्ष @AmitShah जी एवं संगठन के सभी वरिष्ठ नेताओं का धन्यवाद करती हूँ। अमेठी से कमल खिलाकर संसद में भाजपा को मज़बूत करना मेरे लिए गर्व की बात होगी।

अमेठी है तैयार, #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar https://t.co/9wBN2TZOq4

— Chowkidar Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) March 21, 2019

The BJP declared the names of 184 candidates in its first list of candidates for 2019 Lok Sabha elections including that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will contest from Varanasi and party president Amit Shah who has been fielded from the Gandhinagar constituency.

First Published: Mar 21, 2019 21:35 IST