Lok Sabha polls: Shah, Rajnath, Irani among 34 Union ministers named in BJP 1st list

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named 34 Union ministers in its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024, released on March 2. The ministers who have featured in the list include BJP heavyweights Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi will be contesting from Varanasi, the constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh which he decisively won in the last two general elections. Rajnath Singh, the defence minister and one of the senior-most members in the Union Cabinet, will also fight the polls from his home constituency in Lucknow.

Shah, the Union home minister, will contest from Gandhinagar, the seat that he has been continuously representing since 2014.

Smriti Irani, the Union minister for women and child welfare, has been fielded from Amethi, the former Gandhi family bastion which she eroded in 2019 by defeating the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Union Minister of State for IT and electronics, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, will contest from Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala which has electing Congress veteran Shashi Tharoor since 2009. Chandrasekhar is currently a Rajya Sabha MP.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has been fielded from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, whereas, environment minister  Bhupendra Yadav will contest from Alwar in Rajasthan. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has been fielded by the party from Gujarat's Porbandar.

Arjun Ram Meghwal, the Union law minister, has been named as the candidate from Bikaner. Other ministers, who will be contesting from seats in Rajasthan include Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Jodhpur, and Kailash Choudhary to contest from Barmer, along with Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla who would contest from Kota.

Union MoS for Science and Tech, Jitendra Singh, will contest from Jammu, whereas, shipping and waterways minister Sarbananda Sonowal has been fielded from Assam's Dibrugarh.

Among other ministers, G Kishan Reddy has been fielded from Secunderabad in Telangana, Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal West, and Arjun Munda from Khunti.

The release of the BJP's first list comes ahead of the announcement of poll dates by the Election Commission. The Opposition INDIA bloc, led by the Congress, is yet to finalise the seat-sharing strategy in several states.