BJP releases sixth list for Lok Sabha polls, to support independent candidate Sumalatha from Mandya

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released the sixth list of 48 candidates (one independent candidate) for Lok Sabha Elections 2019. The list has names of candidates from six states - Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka.

With these names, the BJP has so far declared a total of 297 candidates out of which one is an independent candidate to which the party has decided to support in the forthcoming general elections. "We will support Sumalatha as the independent candidate from Mandya (Karnataka)," said senior party leader JP Nadda while addressing a press conference in the national capital.

Sumalatha Ambareesh, the veteran actor and wife of late former Congress lawmaker MH Ambareesh, made headlines after she announced that she would contest from Mandya parliamentary constituency as an independent candidate. Her husband had represented Mandya both as Member of Parliament (MP) and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA).

After Ambareesh's demise in November 2018, people of the constituency started pressurising Sumalatha to contest polls from Manyda seat. Veteran party leader and sitting Kangra MP Shanta Kumar has been denied tickets. Kishan Kapoor will replace the octogenarian leader as the BJP nominee from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh.

Other big names in the sixth list are Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh), Suresh Kashyap from Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Kishan Kapoor from Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) and Nishikant Dubey from Godda (Jharkhand). 

Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Jayant Sinha, Shripad Naik to contest from Morena (Madhya Pradesh), Hazaribagh (Jharkhand) and North Goa seats.

“The list has been announced after the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP met under the presidentship of party chief Amit Shah on Friday. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and all other members of the Central Election Committee of the BJP,” the party said in a release.

The Lok Sabha Elections 2019 will be held in seven phases, starting from April 11, while the results of all the phases will be declared on May 23. Announcing the seven-phase schedule for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora also said 10 lakh polling stations would be set up this time as against about nine lakhs in 2014.

In the first phase, 91 constituencies will go for polls, 97 constituencies in the second phase, 115 constituencies in the third, 71 in the fourth phase, 51 in the fifth phase, 59 in the sixth phase and 59 in the seventh phase. In the first phase, the polling will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Delhi, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand.