The BJP on Saturday came out with its sixth list of candidates of 47 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, taking the total nominees announced so far to 297. It also declared support to an Independent candidate from Mandya constituency in Karnataka’s old Mysuru region considered a stronghold of JD-S’ HD Deve Gowda family.

While there are no big surprises in the sixth list, the party dropped two veterans, Karia Munda from Khunti in Jharkhand and Shanta Kumar from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. Munda was a deputy speaker of Lok Sabha between 2009 and 2014 and Shanta Kumar is a former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh.

Shanta Kumar was replaced with his protégé and state transport minister Kishan Kapoor and Munda by former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda.

A key reason being attributed for dropping the veterans is their age. There is an undeclared decision within the BJP not to give party tickets to leaders who are over 75.

Already, the BJP has declined tickets to some other seniors such as Bhagat Singh Koshyari, 76 and BC Khandhuri, 84, from Uttarakhand, Bijoya Chakravarty, 79, from Guwahati.

BJP patriarch LK Advani, 91, who represents Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha, has also been replaced by BJP chief Amit Shah. The fate of Kanpur MP Murli Manohar Joshi, 85, however, has not been decided so far.

The fifth list has candidates for both of Goa’s seats, 15 from Madhya Pradesh, 10 from Jharkhand, 15 from Gujarat, all four from Himachal and two from Karnataka.

BJP’s youth wing former chief Anurag Thakur has been renominated from Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur. Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar has also been given the party ticket from Madhya Pradesh but has been shifted from Gwalior to Morena.

Junior civil aviation minister Jayant Sinha will run again from Hazaribagh. Also on Saturday’s list is Union minister Sudarshan Bhagat from Lohardaga in Jharkhand. Ayush minister Shripad Yesso Naik has also been nominated from Goa North.

The seven-phase of 17th Lok Sabha elections in the country are slated to begin on April 11 and will go on till May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.

First Published: Mar 23, 2019 21:19 IST