In the fresh list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls, the BJP on late Friday night released the names of five party nominees from Odisha including party spokesman Sambit Patra for the Puri parliamentary constituency.
Ahead of the multi-phased polls, 23 candidates have been announced for Andhra Pradesh, six candidates for Maharashtra and one candidate each for Assam and Meghalaya.
Among the parliamentary seats in Andhra Pradesh – the party named Satya Gopinath Dasparavasthu from Rajamundhry, Chinnam Ramkottaya from Eluru, Dilip Kumar Kilaru for Vijaywada and Valluru Jayaprakash Narayana for Guntur.
The BJP nominee for Chittoor SC reserved seat will be Jayaram Duggani and Bommi Sri Hari Rao will be party candidate from Tirupati reserved constituency.
The announcement by BJP CEC secretary and Union Minister J P Nadda also said that among others Dr P V Parthasarthi will be the saffron party candidate from Kurnool.
In Maharashtra, the BJP candidates include Smita Uday Wagh from Jalgaon, Girish Bapat from Pune and Kanchan Rahul Kul from Baramati.
In Assam, ending speculation, the BJP decided to field Pallab Lochan Das from Tezpur.
Earlier, the party toyed with the idea of fielding state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for the seat but later gave up the move on the ground that Mr Sarma as North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor will be more involved in campaigning in the entire north east region.
Mr Das is sitting MLA representing Rangapara constituency and is Assam Tea Tribes Welfare (Independent charge) Minister. He will have to sweat it out against Congress nominee, former Assam bureaucrat and Andhra Pradesh-born MGVK Bhanu.
The list of BJP nominees was released after BJP CEC meeting which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and senior leaders of the party.
In Odisha, Sambit Patra will be BJP nominee from temple town Puri. Besides, the party has named Jayaram Pangi from Koraput ST seat, Basanta Kumar Panda from Kalahandi, Nitesh Ganga Deb from Sambhalpur and Suresh Pujari from Bargarh.
In Meghalaya, for the prestigious Shillong seat, the BJP named its legislator Sambor Shullai while its alliance partners have backed the candidature of Jemino Mawthoh of UDP.
