The BJP unveiled its fifth list of Lok Sabha candidates on Sunday, which included 111 names from 17 states. Notable candidates included actress Kangana Ranaut from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, Ram Arun Govil from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and businessman Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra in Haryana.
Abhijit Gangopadhyay, a former judge of the Calcutta High Court who recently left the bench to join the BJP, has been nominated to the Tamluk seat in West Bengal.
Additional notable contenders are Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Sambalpur in Odisha, Aparajita Sarangi, a former IAS officer from Bhubaneswar, Sambit Patra, the party spokesman from Puri, D. Purandeswari, the head of the Andhra Pradesh unit from Rajahmundry, and Kiran Kumar Reddy, the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh who left the Congress, from Rajampet.
Union Ministers R.K. Singh from Arrah, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Giriraj Singh from Begusarai have been fielded by the party in Bihar. The list also includes former Union Ministers from Patna Sahib, Saran, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Purvi Champaran, Radha Mohan Singh, and Pataliputra, Ram Kripal Yadav.
Sita Soren, a new party member, has been fielded by JMM from Dumka (ST).
Former state minister K. Sudhakar from Chikballapur and former chief minister of Karnataka Jagadish Shettar, who recently rejoined the party from the Congress, have been fielded. Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, is running for office in Wayanad, and state chief K. Surendran has been fielded from Kerala.
UP minister Jitin Prasad was fielded in lieu of sitting MP Varun Gandhi, who was denied a ticket by Pilibhit. Santosh Gangwar, a former Union Minister and longtime Bareilly MP, was also removed, and Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar was chosen as the candidate.
In lieu of incumbent MP and Union Minister Gen. V.K. Singh (retd.), the BJP has fielded Atul Garg from Ghaziabad.
