LS elections: Kangana Ranaut, former Calcutta HC judge on BJP's fifth list of candidates; Varun Gandhi dropped from Pilibhit

New Delhi [India], March 24 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released its fifth list of 111 candidates for Lok Sabha elections, including 13 names from Uttar Pradesh and 19 from West Bengal.
The party has released the names of the candidates for the Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Telangana, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
The party has fielded veteran actor Arun Govil, who played the character of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar's 'Ramayan' from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut.
In UP, the BJP dropped Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and allotted the seat to former Congress leader Jitin Prasada.
Former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has been once again fielded from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The party has fielded Raghav Lakhanpal from Saharanpur, Sarvesh Singh from Moradabad, Atul Garg from Ghaziabad, Satish Gautam from Aligarh, Anoop Valmiki from Hathras, Survijay Singh Shakya from Badaun, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar from Bareily, Ramesh Awasthi from Kanpur, Rajrani Rawat from Barabanki and Arvind Gond from Bahraich.
Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum number of MPs, 80, to Parliament, will vote in all seven phases.
Voting for phases one and two will be held on April 19 and April 26. Next, the state will once again poll in phases three and four on May 7 and May 13.
The Uttar Pradesh electorate will also vote in phases five, six and seven on May 20, May 23 and June 1 respectively.
In West Bengal Tapas Roy is the candidate for Kolkata Uttar, Dilip Ghosh for Bardhaman-Durgapur, and Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who recently resigned as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, will contest from Tamluk.
Agnimitra Paul is all set to contest the Medinipur seat, while Ashim Kumar Darkar will contest from Bardhaman Purba.
Other names of the candidates from West Bengal include Jayanta Roy from Jalpaiguri, Raju Bista from Darjeeling, Kartivk Paul from Raiganj, Dhananjay Ghosh from Jangipur, Amrita Roy from Krishananagar and Arjun Singh.
The party has named Arup Kanti Digar from Arambagh, Kabir Shankar Bose from Sreerampur, Arun Uday Paul Chowdhury from Uluberia, Debashree Chaudhary from Kolkata Dakshin, Adhok Purkait from Mathurapur, Rekha Patra from Basirhat, Swpan Majumdar from Barasat and Shilbhadra Dutta from Dum Dum.
In Bihar, the party has fielded Union ministers RK Singh from Arrah, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Giriraj Singh from Begusarai. Former Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran, Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran, and Ram Kripal Yadav from Pataliputra also figure on the list.
Sanjay Jaiswal will contest from Paschim Champaran, Ashok Kumar Yadav from Madhubani, Pradeep Kumar Singh from Araria, Gopal Jee Thakur from Darbhanga, Raj Bhushan Nishad from Muzaffarpur, Janardan Singh Sigriwal from Maharajganj, Mithilesh Tiwari from Buxar and Shivesh Ram will fight from Sasaram.
The party has fielded K Surendran against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi from Kerala's Wayanad. TN Sarasu will contest Alathur, KS Radhakrishnan from Ernakulam and G Krishnakumar from Kollam.
The BJP announced the names of its candidates for 18 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha while dropping four sitting MPs from the list. The nominees for Cuttack, Jajpur and Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituencies are yet to be named by the party.
The party has fielded Dharmendra Pradhan from the Sambalpur seat, and Baijayant Jay Panda has been fielded from Kendrapara. Similarly, the party has fielded Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, Jual Oram from Sundargarh, Sambit Patra from Puri, and Pratap Sarangi from Balasore.
The BJP which earlier announced going solo in Odisha, named Pradeep Purohit from Bargarh, Anant Nayak from Keonjhar, Naba Charan Majhi from Mayurbhanj, Avimanyu Sethi from Bhadrak, Rudra Narayan Pani from Dhenkanal, Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo from Bolangir, Malvika Keshari Deo from Kalahandi, Balabhadra Majhi from Nabarangpur, Bibhu Prasad Tarai from Jagatsinghpur, Anita Subhadarshini from Aska, Pradeep Panigrahy from Berhampur and Kaleram Majhi from Koraput.
Dempo Industries executive director Pallavi Dempo is the first woman candidate in BJP's poll history in Goa who will contest Lok Sabha elections on the party ticket from South Goa.
The BJP had won this constituency only twice since 1962.
South Goa constituency, spread across 20 assembly segments, had changed hands among the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party, United Goans Party, and Indian National Congress. The BJP won this seat in the 1999 and 2014 elections but could not retain it.
Former Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal, who resigned from the grand old party earlier in the day will contest from the Kurukshetra constituency. In Haryana, Ranjit Chautala will contest Hisar while Mohan Lal Badoli from Sonipat and Arvind Kumar Sharma will fight from Rohtak.
The party also announced two names for Himachal Pradesh, naming Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut from Mandi and Rajeev Bharadwaj from Kangra.
The BJP had earlier nominated Union Minister Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur and Suresh Kashyap from Shimla as its candidates.
In the general elections of 2009, Virbhadra Singh, and in the by-elections of 2013 and 2021, Congress candidate Pratibha Singh was elected as the Member of Parliament from the Mandi seat.
In the parliamentary elections of 2014 and 2019, BJP emerged victorious with Ram Swaroop Sharma being elected as the Member of Parliament on both the times. However, in 2021, Ram Swaroop Sharma tragically passed away by suicide. Subsequently, in the 2021 by-elections, this seat went to Pratibha Singh of the Congress. Currently, out of the four Lok Sabha seats, BJP holds three.
In Rajasthan, Manju Sharma has been fielded from Jaipur, while Mahima Vishweswar Singh from Rajsamand, Bhagirath Chaudhary from Ajmer, Rao Rajendra Singh from Jaipur Rural, Shubkaran Choudhary from Jhunjhunu and Priyanka Balan from Ganganagar.
Dinesh Chandra Nepal will contest the Sikkim seat.
Aroori Ramesh will fight from Telangana's Warangal while Tandra Vinod Rao from Khammam.
Vanlalhmuaka will contest from Mizoram.
The BJP announced three names for Maharashtra, naming Sunil Baburao Mendhe from Bhandara-Gondiya, Ashok Mahadev Rao Nete from Gadchiroli-Chimur and Ram Satpute from Solapur.
In Karnataka, Jagdish Shettar will fight from Belgaum, Raja Amareshwara Naik from Raichur, Vishweshwar Hedge Kageri from Uttara Kannada and K Sudhakar will contest from Chikkballapur.
The party has also dropped ex-Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada constituency.
The BJP announced the names of three candidates in Jharkhand, including Sita Soren - former JMM MLA and sister-in-law of former Chief Minister Hemant Soren - from Dumka (ST) constituency.
The party on March 2 announced that sitting MP Sunil Soren, who had defeated JMM president Shibu Soren in the 2019 polls by a margin of 47,590 votes, will seek re-election from Dumka.
In a blow to the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, three-term MLA and elder daughter-in-law of party patriarch Shibu Soren, Sita Soren joined the BJP on March 20 citing "isolation" and "neglect" by JMM since the death of her husband Durga Soren in 2009.
Kalicharan Singh will fight from Chatra, Dulu Mahato to go to polls from Dhanbad.
The BJP in its first list of Lok Sabha election candidates had named 11 nominees from Jharkhand including four new candidates - former Congress parliamentarian Geeta Kora (Singhbhum ST constituency), Rajya Sabha MP Samir Oraon, Tala Marandi and Manish Jaiswal.
There are 14 parliamentary constituencies in Jharkhand and as per the seat-sharing arrangement between the BJP and the AJSU Party, the Giridih seat has been left for the AJSU Party.
BJP released its list of six Lok Sabha candidates contesting from Andhra Pradesh.
Former Chief Minister of composite Andhra Pradesh Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy will contest from Rajampet Lok Sabha seat, while BJP Andhra Pradesh State president Daggubati Purandeswari will contest from Rajamahendravaram Lok Sabha seat. Similarly, Kothapalli Geeta will contest from the Araku (ST) LS seat, while Bhupatiraju Srinivasa Varma will contest from the Narsapuram Lok Sabha seat.
C.M. Ramesh, who switched loyalties from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to BJP soon after the 2019 elections, will contest from the Anakapalli LS seat. Velagapalli Vara Prasad Rao, will contest from Tirupati LS seat. Earlier, he won from the same constituency on the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) ticket in 2014. Later, he entered the Andhra Pradesh Assembly as YSRCP's Gudur MLA. BJP A.P. office-bearer Srinivasa Varma will contest from the Narsapuram LS seat. Present Narsapuram MP Raghu Rama Krishnam Raju, who won on a YSRCP ticket in 2019, hoped that TDP, BJP or JSP would field him as a candidate for the seat. He, however, did not join any of these political parties but addressed the TDP-JSP meeting at Tadepalligudem.
From Gujarat's Vadodara, Hemang Yogeshchandra Joshi will be the party candidate while Bharatbhai Manubhai Sutariya will contest Amreli. Rajesh Chudasama has been fielded from Junagadh, Chandubhai Chhaaganbhai Shihora from Surendranagar, Shobhnaben Mahebdrasinh Baraiya from Sabarkantha and Haribhai Patel from Mahesana.
The parliamentary elections for the 543 constituencies will be conducted in seven phases, commencing on April 19 and concluding on June 1. Vote counting is scheduled for June 4.