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Modi to contest from Varanasi
Modi will replace sitting MP and senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi who had been resisting the move, but was apparently prevailed over by the RSS. Joshi will now contest from Kanpur. The party announced 93 names, including 55 for Uttar Pradesh, 11 for Chhattisgarh, seven each for Haryana and Delhi, five for Uttarakhand, four for Odisha, two each for Punjab and Bihar, one each for Sikkim, Assam, Chandigarh, Arunachal Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The party’s central poll panel met after the parliamentary board discussed prospects of an alliance with Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP in Andhra Pradesh. Party president Rajnath Singh has been fielded from Lucknow and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley from Amritsar.
"With blessings of Ganga Mata & Kashi Vishwanath, let us work towards success of Mission 272+ & create a strong, vibrant & prosperous India," (sic). The party is yet to finalise candidates from Gujarat but sources say Modi may choose to contest from either Ahmedabad East or Vadodara in his home state. Asked whether Modi could contest from Gujarat also, senior leader Ananth Kumar said: "There is every possibility". The Gujarat list would be out on March 19, when senior leader LK Advani’s seat will also be announced. Like Modi, Rajnath Singh also had his way. He will contest from Lucknow in place of incumbent party MP Lalji Tandon, who had earlier ruled out changing his constituency. Rajnath won the last election from Ghaziabad but wanted to shift to Lucknow because of its significance — it used to be the constituency of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. Senior party leader Arun Jaitley has been fielded from the Amritsar in Punjab. He will replace sitting MP Navjot Singh Sidhu — who was called by the party leadership earlier in the day and offered an option of contesting from other seats — Kurukshetra in Haryana or West Delhi — which he declined. Sources say the party may accommodate him in the Rajya Sabha. Vijay Sampla was cleared for Hoshiarpur, while the Gurdaspur constituency was kept on hold. Sources say there is former MP Vinod Khanna and BJP national executive member Swarn Salaria are vying for party nomination from the seat. Chandigarh will see an interesting battle as the party has fielded actor-turned-politician Kirron Kher there. Other high-profile candidates fielded from UP include Kalraj Mishra (Deoria), Varun Gandhi (Sultanpur), his mother Maneka Gandhi (Pilibhit), Yogi Adiyanath (Gorakhpur), and Uma Bharti (Jhansi). The party also released candidates list for Delhi's seven Lok Sabha seats. Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan has been pitted against sitting Congress MP Kapil Sibal and AAP leader Ashutosh in Chandni Chowk. BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi has been fielded from New Delhi, Bhojpuri actor-singer Manoj Tiwari from North-East Delhi, Dalit leader Udit Raj North-West Delhi, Parwesh Verma, son of Sahib Singh Verma, from West Delhi and Mahesh Giri in East Delhi. The party also decided to field sitting MP Shatrughan Sinha again from Patna Sahib.
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New Delhi, March 15
In Uttarakhand, the party named three former CMs — Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Haridwar, BC Khanduri from Pauri Garhwal and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari from Nainital. Modi later tweeted: "Grateful to the party for giving me the opportunity to contest the election from the holy city of Varanasi! An honour to contest from Varanasi."