New Delhi:
Bharatiya Janata Party has announced 72 new names for the Lok Sabha elections. The names of five Union Ministers are included in the second list of BJP candidates. These also include the name of Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who will try his luck in the Lok Sabha elections for the first time. Apart from these, names of Nitin Gadkari, Anurag Thakur, Prahlad Joshi and Rao Inderjit Singh are also included in the second list.
Read also
Piyush Goyal, a three-time Rajya Sabha MP, has been fielded in the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North seat. This seat is held by BJP's Gopal Shetty since 2014. Piyush Goyal, who holds the portfolios of Commerce and Industry, Textiles, and Food and Consumer Affairs, joins the list of those who will contest the Lok Sabha elections for the first time, including Health Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Rajiv Chandrashekhar.
It is BJP's strategy to field ministers in the Lok Sabha elections instead of getting them entry through Rajya Sabha, so that they can help the party win.
Nitin Gadkari has been fielded from Nagpur seat, which is the headquarters of RSS. Road Transport and Highways Minister Gadkari has been winning from this seat since 2014. The names of big leaders like PM Modi, Amit Shah and Rajnath were included in the first list of BJP, but the name of Nitin Gadkari was not there, hence some speculations started, but after the second list came, they came to an end.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had even told Gadkari that if the BJP was “insulting” him then he should join the opposition. However, Gadkari termed it as “immature” and “ridiculous”.
At the same time, the name of Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur is also there in the announcement made for two out of four seats of Himachal. He has been given ticket from Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, from where he has been winning elections since 2009.
This time, Bharatiya Janata Party is focusing especially on the South for its target – 370. BJP has fielded Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad seat of Karnataka. Joshi has been MP from this seat since 2009. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP got 29 seats from southern states, out of which 25 seats were from Karnataka.
BJP has given ticket to second Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh from Gurugram seat. He has been holding this seat since 2009.
