BJP fields Hazarika from Guwahati

Bhupen Hazarika, the BJP’s new find in the North-East, will contest from Guwahati on the party ticket, BJP general sectary Pramod Mahaj...

Bhupen Hazarika, the BJP’s new find in the North-East, will contest from Guwahati on the party ticket, BJP general sectary Pramod Mahajan said today while releasing the party’s second list. Bijoya Chakravarty, who was a Minister of State in the Vajpayee government, has been dropped, Mahajan added. The second list names 96 candidates from nine different states and one Union territory and were finalised after the Central Election Committee meeting. The party had released 136 names on Sunday.

Mahajan said: ‘‘In the second list, there are 53 sitting MPs, nine women, 16 Scheduled Caste and 14 Scheduled Tribe candidates.’’ Six other sitting MPs have been denied the party ticket.

Candidates for 18 seats in Gujarat were declared and comprise sitting MPs mostly. These include Bhupendra Singh Solanki (Godhra), Babu Bhai Katara (Dohad) and Pushpadan Gadhvi (Kutch). Sitting MPs have been changed in two constituencies, as Hari Bhai Patel will contest from Porbandar and Jai Prakash Patel (Anand).

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In Assam, BJP declared all 12 candidates. While one sitting MP has been dropped, the other sitting MP Rajen Gohain (Nagaon) will contest. BJP is fielding a woman candidate, Jabeen Barbhuyian, from Dhubri.

In West Bengal, BJP announced nominees for 12 of 13 seats which the party is contesting. Ministers Tapan Sikdar (Dum Dum) and Satyabrata Mukherjee (Krishnanagar) will contest for re-election.

In Kerala, the party decided to field Union MoS O. Rajagopal from Thiruvananthapuram. The party also announced another 20 candidatures from Madhya Pradesh. Union MoS Prahlad Patel will now contest against Congress’s Kamal Nath from Chhindwara. While most sitting MPs have been renominated, the nominees for Jabalpur, Seoni and Hoshangabad have been changed. BJP is contesting 29 seats here and has declared 25 so far. Five names were declared yesterday.

Nine more candidates were decided in Bihar, which included Union MoS Sanjay Paswan (Nawada) and Kirti Azad (Darbhanga). Most sitting MPs have been renominated and Sushil Kumar Modi, Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, has been chosen to contest from Bhagalpur. In Jharkhand, all eight sitting MPs were renominated.