Former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, ex-Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Shanta Kumar, party's deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde and Yuva Morcha chief Anurag Thakur are among the 54 names in BJP's first list of candidates released tonight for Lok Sabha polls.
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, covers eight states and includes six SCs and six STs, four minorities and two women.
While Gadkari will contest for Nagpur Lok Sabha seat, Munde will be in fray in his Beed seat in Maharashtra and in Himachal Pradesh Shanta Kumar will be trying his luck from Kangra and Thakur in Hamirpur.
The party's Central Election Committee finalised the list after two hours of deliberations at the BJP headquarters where top leaders like Narendra Modi, L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi and M Venkaiah Naidu were present.
The list also includes well-known magician P C Sorcar (Jr) who will contest from Barasat in West Bengal, former union minister Tapan Sikdar to be fielded from Dum Dum seat in West Bengal, former union minister Jual Oram from Sundargarh (ST) in Odisha and film actor George Baker from Howrah in West Bengal.
Of the 54 candidates finalised today, 17 each are in Maharashtra and West Bengal, six in Odisha, five in Jammu and Kashmir, three in Himachal Pradesh and two each in Goa, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
