With less than ten days to go for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP,) on the 3rd of April, announced the candidates who will contest against the Indian National Congress (INC.)
Bhojpuri actor and singer Dinesh Lal Yadav was picked to fight against Akhilesh Yadav, the President of the Samajwadi Party, from Azamgarh. The BJP named Prem Singh to fight against Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri and Dinesh Pratap Singh to contest against Sonia Gandhi in Raebareli.
The BJP picked these candidates to fight against the opposition directly on their home ground. What is extremely interesting is the fact, Dinesh Pratap Singh was an ex Congressman who joined the BJP and was elected to the State Legislative Council for the second time in a row in 2016.
Raebareli is going to be quite a hotspot, with an ex Congressman and a current member fighting for a seat held by the INC since 2004.
Apart from announcing the top three candidates on its list, the BJP also announced a replacement for the Mumbai North East seat. With the Shiv Sena against the candidature of Kirit Somaiya, the BJP decided to replace him with Manoj Kotak.
The Shiv Sena was severely opposed to Somaiya because of his continuous tirades and rants against the Hindutva party. However, because the BJP wants to keep a strong nationalistic front, it had to appease the Shiv Sena leaders by replacing one of its own.
Moreover, by naming Chandra Sen Jadun as the candidate from Firozabad, the BJP is making sure all the major INC leaders are aware of their competition.
With the announcement of its candidates, the BJP named 383 nominees for this year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The Lok Sabha elections begin on the 11th of April and last till the 19th of May. With the BJP and INC announcing strong candidates for each constituency, the competition is becoming tougher by the minute.
The results for the elections are going to be declared on the 23rd of May.
Stay tuned for more updates.
