The BJP Sunday announced Shankar Lalwani as its candidate for the Indore Lok Sabha seat, a party stronghold held since 1989 by senior leader and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Mahajan, who turned 76 in April, had announced on April 5 that she would not contest the elections, apparently in keeping with the BJP's reported diktat that leaders above the age of 75 opt out of electoral politics.
Lalwani, who has earlier been Indore Development Authority (IDA) chairman and Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) president, is from the Sindhi community and is making his Lok Sabha poll debut.
He is pitted against the Congress' Pankaj Sanghvi.
Senior leader and BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, whose name was doing the rounds in place of Mahajan, also opted out citing responsibilities as the party's in charge in West Bengal.
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