The BJP on Sunday published the 5th list of 111 candidates for the Lok Sabha election 2024 which included Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut from Mandi and Arun Govil from Meerut. This will be the electoral debut for both Kangana who often called herself a fan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Arun Govil who played Ram in popular TV serial Ramayan. Varun Gandhi has been dropped from BJP’s candidate list in Uttar Pradesh while his mother Maneka Gandhi retains Sultanpur. The BJP has dropped former Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada constituency, Union minister Ashwini Choubey has been dropped from Buxar. New entrant Sita Soren will contest from Dumka.
Naveen Jindal who quit the Congress on Sunday and joined the BJP has been fielded from Kurukshetra in Haryana. Gen VK Singh (retd) who announced his exit from electoral politics hours before the 5th list was published did not feature on the list.
There has been no announcement on embattled MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India.
After Kangana Ranaut’s name was announced from Mandi, she said she was elated to officially join the party. “My beloved Bharat and Bhartiya Janta’s own party, Bharatiya Janta party ( BJP) has always had my unconditional support, today the national leadership of BJP has announced me as their Loksabha candidate from my birth place Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency) I abide by the high command’s decision on contesting Loksabha polls. I feel honoured and elated to officially join the party. I look forward to be a worthy karyakarta and a reliable public servant,” Kangana Ranaut posted on X.
Other remarkable mentions from the 5th list are Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, Giriraj Singh from Begusarai, Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Jagadish Shettar from Belagaum, K Sudhakaran from Chikkaballapur, Dharmendra Pradhan from Sambalpur, Pratap Sarangi from Balasore, Sambit Patra from Puri, Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneshwar, Jitin Prasada from Pilibhit, Raju Bista from Darjeeling, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay from Tamluk, Dilip Ghosh from Bardhaman-Durgapur.
