Lok Sabha Elections 2019 | BJP releases third list of 36 candidates, Sambit Patra to contest from Puri

The BJP on Friday night released its third list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections containing 36 names, which included 23 nominees for Andhra Pradesh where polling will be held in the first phase on April 11.

The list also contained names of six candidates for Maharashtra and five for Odisha. Other than these, one candidate each for Assam and Meghalaya has been announced in the list.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra will contest the general election from Puri parliamentary constituency in Odisha.

Earlier, there were speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may opt for Puri seat. However, the first list of party released this Wednesday confirmed that he will stick to the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.

In 2014, PM Modi had contested from Varanasi as well as Vadodara in his home state Gujarat. After winning both, he decided to retain the holy city in Uttar Pradesh.

The list released by the BJP on Friday is the third, according to the party website. The second list included one name of Lalubhai Patel for the Daman and Diu seat.

The first list included 184 candidates for the upcoming general elections. While PM Modi will contest from Varanasi, BJP president Amit Shah will fight from Gandhinagar in place of veteran leader L K Advani.

BJP heavyweights such as Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari have been fielded from Lucknow and Nagpur seats respectively with the party reposing its faith in all but one Union minister from the constituency they had won in 2014.

Union minister and fiery leader Smriti Irani will reprise her electoral battle with Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi, where she had lost to him in 2014 but was seen to have put up a spirited fight.

The biggest surprise in the first list was dropping of Advani, the 91-year-old party stalwart who called the shots in the BJP for decades before Modi's rise eclipsed him, from Gandhinagar and Shah's decision to make his Lok Sabha poll debut from there.

Advani has been representing Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha since 1998 and Shah was incidentally his poll manager in initial elections.

The BJP believes that Shah's candidature will signal the party president's intent to lead from the front and also energise workers, especially in Gujarat where it is facing a resurgent Congress.