In order to choose the second list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) convened for a second meeting on Monday. Discussions were held over 99 seats from the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Chandigarh. In the midst of a dispute over Ananthkumar Hedge’s comments regarding amending the Indian Constitution, sources indicated the party is likely to remove him from the Uttara Kannada seat.
According to sources, former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai would be included on the second list and will probably be a candidate for the Haveri-Gadag seat.
Hedge is probably not the only lawmaker from the southern state to be removed. The reports claim that Union Minister Shoba Karandlaje, the Udupi Chikmangalore MP at the moment, will probably be transferred to the Bangalore North seat. Many members of the party reacted negatively to the announcement, with some even writing BJP National President JP Nadda to request that he deny her a ticket.
Pratap Simha from Mysuru, former Union Minister GM Siddeshwara from Davangere, Yarabasi Devendrappa from Bellary, Karadi Sanganna Amarappa from Koppal, and former state BJP President and Mangaluru MP Nalin Kumar Kateel are among the other candidates who are probably going to be dismissed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior party leaders went over a list of potential candidates who might make the final list during Monday’s meeting. Before the CEC makes a final decision, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP leader JP Nadda have met with leaders of several states to compile a list of probables.
Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, Bhopal, and Prime Minister Modi from Varanasi were among the prominent candidates on the first list of 195 announced by the BJP earlier this month. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, ran from the Vidisha seat.
Union Railways Minister Nitin Gadkari was left off the list, which led Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT) to criticise the BJP. Thackeray also proposed Gadkari to quit the BJP and shift to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), promising an election ticket to him from Maharashtra. However, BJP leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that Gadkari’s name would feature in the party’s list from the western state.
Prior to the CEC meeting on Monday, JP Nadda, the president of the BJP, and Dushyant Chautala, the deputy chief minister of Haryana, discussed seat distribution between the two allies in the state. Following the 2019 Haryana Assembly elections, the JJP formed an alliance with the BJP. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had taken all ten Lok Sabha seats in the state.
For the next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the BJP has teamed up with Pawan Kallyan’s Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the TDP led by Chandrababu Naidu. The BJP will run for six Lok Sabha seats, while the TDP and JSP would get 17 and 2 seats, respectively, as part of a seat-sharing arrangement reached by the allies.
The TDP under Chandrababu Naidu rejoined the BJP-led NDA after leaving it in 2018.
Two of the 195 Lok Sabha candidates that the BJP has so far listed—Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh and Upendra Rawat—opted not to run in the election as a result of controversy.
After a huge outcry about his nomination, which included offensive references to Bengali women in his discography, Pawan Singh withdrew it from Bengal’s Asansol. Following the viral release of a rumoured video purporting to show Upendra Rawat in a compromising situation with a foreign woman, Rawat decided not to run in the Barabanki constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
