Lok Sabha polls: Kangana Ranaut, Arun Govil in BJP’s 5th list of 111 candidates that includes new joinees

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threw up some surprises on Sunday (Mar 24) as it released its fifth list of candidates ahead of the Lok Sabha polls 2024 and has fielded Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, Ramayana TV serial's actor Arun Govil, former Calcutta High Court Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal and a number of present and former Union ministers.

The list includes candidates from the seats of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Telangana, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Top points

- The party announced the list of 111 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

- The list issued by the ruling party includes prominent names like actor Kangana Ranaut, who has been fielded from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, which is considered the Congress party's stronghold.

- Arun Govil, who played the character of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar's TV serial 'Ramayan', has been fielded from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

- Former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who joined the party on Sunday (Mar 24), was handed the ticket from Haryana's Kurukshetra.

- Former Calcutta High Court Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay will contest from Tamluk, West Bengal

- Union Minister of Rural Developmentand Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh is set to contest from Bihar's Begusarai

- Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai from Ujiyarpur, Bihar

- Union Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan from Sambalpur, Odisha

- Former minister and sitting MP Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Bihar

- Former Union Minister of Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh from East Champaran, Bihar

-Former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran, Bihar

- UnionMinister of Power and New & Renewable Energy R K Singh from Arrah, Bihar

-Baijayant Jay Panda from Kendrapara, Odisha

- Sita Soren from Dumka, Jharkhand

- K Surendran from Wayanad, Kerala against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

- The party dropped Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and allotted the seat to former Congress leader Jitin Prasada.

- Varun's mother Maneka Gandhi was retained by the party and has been fielded from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

- Tapas Roy has been fielded as the candidate from Kolkata North

- Dilip Ghosh fromBardhaman-Durgapur

- The party dropped Ashwini Choubey from Buxar (Bihar) and replacedhim with Mithilesh Tiwari.

- Sambit Patra will again contest from Odisha's Puri seat

(With inputs from agencies)