Gadkari, Munde in BJP's 1st list of 54

The list, released after a meeting of the party's CEC, covers eight states and includes six scheduled caste, six scheduled tribe, four minority

Former party chief Nitin Gadkari, former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar, it's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde and Yuva Morcha chief Anurag Thakur are among the 54 names in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) first list of candidates for Lok Sabha poll released late on Thursday.

The party has nominated two Muslim candidates in Jammu and Kashmir - Gulam Mohammad Mir in Baramulla and Mushtaq Ahmad Malik Nurabadi in Anantnag constituencies. The list, released after a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC), covers eight states and includes six scheduled caste, six scheduled tribe, four minority and two women candidates.

While Gadkari will contest from Nagpur, Munde will defend his Beed seat in Maharashtra. Shanta Kumar will contest from Kangra and Thakur from Hamirpur, both in Himachal Pradesh. The CEC finalised the list after two hours of deliberations at its headquarters, where top leaders Narendra Modi, L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi and Venkaiah Naidu were present.

The list includes well-known magician P C Sorcar (Jr), who will contest from Barasat in West Bengal, former Union minister Tapan Sikdar from Dum Dum in West Bengal, former Union minister Jual Oram from Sundargarh in Odisha and film actor George Baker from Howrah in West Bengal.

Of the 54 candidates, 17 are being fielded from Maharashtra and West Bengal, six from Odisha, five from Jammu and Kashmir, three from Himachal Pradesh and two each in Goa, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.