The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday declared that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi, while party president Amit Shah will fight from Gandhinagar in place of party patriarch L K Advani.
Addressing a press conference, Union minister J P Nadda announced that Home Minister Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow, while Union minister Nitin Gadkari will contest from Nagpur.
“V K Singh to contest from Ghaziabad, Hema Malini from Mathura, Sakshi Maharaj from Unnao, and Smriti Irani from Amethi,” Nadda said.
Nadda said 182 candidates will be declared today.
The announcement put to rest speculations on which seat Modi will contest from.
There were rumours that Modi may contest from Varanasi and another temple town — Puri in Odisha.
Union minister J P Nadda announces more Bharatiya Janata Party candidates for Lok Sabha polls:
Babul Supriyo will contest from Asanasol,
Rahul Sinha from Kolkata North,
Chandra Kumar Bose from Kolkata South.
Subhash Bhamre to contest from Dhule,
Hansraj Ahir from Chandrapur,
Poonam Mahajan from Mumbai North Central.
Jugal Kishore to contest from Jammu,
Dr Jitendra Singh from Udhampur,
Sofi Yousuf from Anantnag.
Khalid Jehangir will contest from Srinagar.
