New Delhi, March 22: The Central Election Committee of Bhartiya Janata Party has released the first list of its 184 candidates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi again, while BJP President Amit Shah will fight from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
For the Assembly elections, the BJP has released names of 100 candidates in Odisha. The leader of the party in the Assembly Kanak Vardhan Singhdeo has been again fielded from the Patnagarh seat while former Minister Jay Narayan Mishra will contest from Sambalpur.
Union Ministers Smriti Irani will try her fate from Amethi Parliamentary constituency, DV Sadananda Gowda from North Bangalore, Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal West, Gen. VK Singh from Ghaziabad, Dr Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddh Nagar and actor turned politician Hema Malini from Mathura.
Poonam Mahajan has been fielded from Mumbai North Central, Dr Jitendra Singh from Udhampur, Khalid Jahangir from Srinagar, KJ Alphons from Ernakulam and K Rajasekharan from Thiruvananthapuram.Baijayant Jay Panda who had joined BJP recently has been given ticket from Kendrapara in Odisha.
Former Minister Dr. Damodar Rout, who recently joined the BJP, leaving the BJD, will fight from the Ersama-Balikuda seat.
The Congress also released the names of 45 candidates for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. It has also announced names for three candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in the state.
They are Ramana Kumari Pedada from Vishakhapatnam, N Narasimha Rao from Vijaywada and J L Narasimha Yadav from Nandyal Parliamentary Constituency.