Modi to contest from Varnasi, Rajnath from Lucknow

BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will contest the Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi, while party president Rajnath Singh moves to Lucknow from Ghaziabad, the BJP announced Saturday.

According to the Bharatiya Janata Party's fourth list, which has 55 candidates, released late Saturday, Arun Jaitley, the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, will contest the elections from Amritsar, Shatrughan Sinha from Patna Sahib, and Uma Bharati from Jhansi.

Maneka Gandhi returns to her traditional Pilibhit seat from Aonla, while her son Varun Gandhi, who was the sitting MP from Pilibhit, will now contest from Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur - contiguous to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's Rae Bareli and vice president Rahul Gandhi's Amethi constituencies.

Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who is sitting MP from Varanasi, moves to Kanpur.

Among the candidates announced for Delhi, where polling will be held in the second round (April 10), are state party chief Harsh Vardhan (Chandni Chowk), party spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi (New Delhi), Pravesh Verma (West Delhi) and Ramesh Bidhuri (South Delhi).

The BJP has fielded actress Kirron Kher from Chandigarh, from where the Aam Aadmi Party is fielding model-turned-actress Gul Panag.

A downcast cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is sitting MP from Amritsar, told media persons earlier Saturday that he will not fight the Lok Sabha polls from anywhere except Amritsar.

Talking to reporters after meeting Rajnath Singh, Sidhu said he had no problem with Jaitley fighting from Amritsar but he had declined alternative constituencies in Delhi and Haryana and would refrain from the electoral battle.