LS polls candidate list: Amit Shah makes debut, PM to contest from Varanasi

All incumbent MPs from Karnataka have been retained by BJP, while Amit Shah has replaced L K Advani. Aparna Yadav has not been named by Samajwadi Party yet

Lok sabha elections 2019: With the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019 looming ahead, parties have started announcing their list of candidates. The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced a list of 184 candidates for 20 states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be contesting from Varanasi.

In a surprise move, BJP chief Amit Shah will be contesting from Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Shah is making is Lok Sabha debut with this elections. It is notable that Gandhinagar is the seat of veteran BJP politician L K Advani. Before this, Advani had vacated the Gandhinagar seat just once for Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996. The western UP candidates of BJP from 2014 elections have been retained. Raj Nath Singh, Hema Malini, V K Singh, Smriti Irani, Mahesh Sharma, Satya Pal Singh have been given tickets. Nitin Gadkari will be contesting from Nagpur.

Kiren Rijiju will be contesting from Arunachal East, while Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore will be contesting from Jaipur Rural. It is interesting to note that BJP has not dropped a single winning candidate from Karnataka. Many BJP leaders who are above the age of 75, have voluntarily declined to contest the elections. This includes Kalraj Mishra.

For the state Andhra Pradesh, the Congress has fielded Ramana Kumari Pedada from Vishakhapatnam, Narahrasetti Narasimha Rao from Vijayawada, and J Lakshmi Narasimha Yadav from Nandyal. With this, the Congress has named its candidates for all the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The total number of Lok Sabha candidates declared by the Congress so far stands at 149.

UP polls 2017: Mulayam backs Akhilesh, to campaign for SP-Cong alliance

UP Elections 2017 | Rebuffing all rumours of feuds within the Samajwadi Party as well as his family, party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said his son Akhilesh Yadav will be the next chief minister of Uttar Pradesh if his party wins the state assembly elections.

"Akhilesh Yadav will be the next Chief Minister. There are no differences in the family. I will start campaigning from tomorrow. Amar Singh is not upset. There is no difference. Akhilesh was given full freedom to work," Mulayam said.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister further said that he will campaign for Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance.

Earlier, Mulayam had told media that he would campaign for his younger brother Shivpal Yadav first.

After that, he would go to seek votes for the candidates named by his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

"Shivpal is not miffed...no one is upset. How can Shivpal make new party without talking to me?" he said.

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