Lok Sabha polls: BJP announces 10th list, drops Kirron Kher from Chandigarh

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Of the eight new names, seven are from Uttar Pradesh and one from Chandigarh

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released its 10th list of nine candidates.

The list has eight new names, while the party replaced its candidate from West Bengal's Asansol. The party had earlier fielded Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh from West Bengal's Asansol, who has now been replaced by SS Ahluwalia.

In March 2022, actor Shatrughan Sinha joined the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) to contest in the byelections for the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency and won by defeating BJP candidate Agnimitra Paul by a margin of 303,209 votes

Of the eight new names, seven are from Uttar Pradesh and one from Chandigarh. Notably, the saffron party dropped incumbent Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher and fielded Sanjay Tandon in her place.

The BJP has given a ticket to Rajya Sabha member Neeraj Shekhar, son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, from UP's Ballia. The party has fielded Paras Nath Rai from Ghazipur, Jaiveer Singh Thakur from Mainpuri, Vinod Sonkar from Kaushambi, Praveen Patel from Phulpur, Neeraj Tripathi from Allahabad, and BP Saroj from Machhlishahr (SC).

Interestingly, in the 2019 general elections, BJP's Machhlishahr candidate BP Saroj set a record of becoming the candidate to have won his seat with the lowest margin — just 181 votes. Saroj defeated BSP's Tribhuwan Ram to win the reserved constituency, which went to polls in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 12.