The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday evening released its second list of 72 candidates from 11 states and union territories, springing many surprises, similar to its first list.
While the first list of 195 saw 34 sitting Union Ministers being fielded, in the second, the BJP included Ministers namely Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Anurag Thakur and Prahlad Joshi.
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But a closer shows the constant trend — fielding Ministers from the Rajya Sabha, Delhi reset and disruptions by dropping many sitting MPs.
PIYUSH GOYAL IN PEOPLE’S COURT
The BJP has fielded its Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North. Interestingly, a substantial portion of his term as a Rajya Sabha member was left. The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles won’t find it tough given the vibrant business community in his seat.
Goyal was born in Mumbai to Chandrakanta Goyal, a three-time BJP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA). He has a long-standing relationship with the Maximum City, where he did his schooling from Don Bosco in Matunga and law graduation from the Mumbai university.
The BJP has started this trend, wherein sitting ministers, who have won from the Rajya Sabha, are being asked to fight the Lok Sabha elections. Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajiv Chandrasekhar are among the other such names.
USING FORMER CMS
Continuing with the trend of fielding former Chief Ministers (CM) who either lost or were unceremoniously removed by the party, the BJP fielded former Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar from Haryana’s Karnal, former Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai from Karnataka’s Haveri and former Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat from Haridwar. The BJP, however, dropped one former CM — Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank — from Haridwar to accommodate another former CM.
In the beginning of this week, Khattar was replaced by a younger OBC face Nayab Singh Saini.
The first list had also seen names such as former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Tripura CM Biplab Deb and former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal.
DELHI DISRUPTION CONTINUES
As reported by News18, the BJP has replaced six of the seven MPs from the national capital. While it dropped four names earlier, retaining only Manoj Tewari, who has a massive sway among the Purvanchali voters, the second list wasn’t any different.
The BJP has fielded Harsh Malhotra from East Delhi, a seat that was held by cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir, who suddenly quit politics, probably sensing what was coming. The BJP has declared Yogendra Chandolia as its candidate from North West, a reserved seat. Singer Hans Raj Hans is the sitting BJP MP from the seat.
Harsh Malhotra has been the Mayor of East Delhi MCD, while Yogendra Chandolia has been the Mayor of North Delhi MCD. Both are General Secretaries of the Delhi unit of the BJP.
Earlier, big names, including Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi, were dropped to make space for fresh faces namely Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of the late Sushma Swaraj.
DISRUPTIVE SURPRISES
While Delhi bore the maximum brunt, other states, too, saw similar disruptions. At least six MPs from Maharashtra have been dropped. Umesh Patil has been dropped from Jalgaon, Sanjay Dhotre from Akola, Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North (making way for Piyush Goyal), Manoj Kotak from Mumbai North East, Girish Bapat from Pune and Pritam Munde from Beed.
However, in two cases at least, family members have been fielded, including in Beed, where Pankaja Munde has been given a ticket.
The situation isn’t much different in Gujarat — Prime Minister Modi’s home turf — where so far at least nine MPs have been dropped, with five dropped in this second list alone.
Although Karnataka hasn’t seen this disruption, its aggressive young MP Pratap Simha has been dropped from Mysuru. There have been protests sensing what was to come, which forced Simha to take to social media to urge his supporters to desist. Similarly, former Karnataka BJP President Nalin Niranjan Shetty Kateel, too, has been dropped. He headed the Karnataka unit from 2019 till 2023.
Darshan Jardosh, a junior minister of Railways, has been dropped from Gujarat and Sunita Duggal dropped from Haryana.
THE REGULARS
However, there are a set of “regulars” who haven’t been touched. Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari will fight once again from his home turf Nagpur in Maharashtra, so will Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who will fight from Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur.
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Both Bengaluru South and Bengaluru Central seats have been retained by Tejasvi Surya and PC Mohan, respectively. Surya is the BJP’s National Youth wing head. Both Surya and Mohan are true blue Bangaloreans. Similarly, B Sriramulu managed to get a ticket from Bellary once again. Union minister Pralhad Joshi, too, has been included.
Shobha Karandlaje, who is known to be close to former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa, managed to get a ticket, despite objections from many in the state unit. However, her seat has been changed to Bengaluru North.