Lok Sabha Polls 2024: 65 MPs dropped in BJP's two candidate lists. Details Here

Of the 267 candidates who have featured in the first two lists of the (BJP) for Lok Sabha polls, 65 members of parliament (MPs) have been replaced by new faces.

While the first list of , released on March 2, saw 33 MPs, including Pragya Thakur, Ramesh Bidhuri and Meenakshi Lekhi, replaced by new faces, 32 MPs, including Union minister Darshana Jardosh and former ministers Sadananda Gowda and Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', have been changed in the released on March 13.

In Delhi, which sends seven members to the Lok Sabha, the party has fielded all but one new candidate. The only candidate who has been retained is Bhojpuri artist-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari, who will contest again from the North East seat. Cricketer-turned-politician , who is the MP from the East Delhi seat, had decided to opt-out. Gambhir has been replaced by Harsh Malhotra, the former mayor of the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The BJP had released its first list of 195 candidates on March 3. Two candidates have so far dropped out. With 72 names released on Wednesday, the BJP has announced candidates for 265 Lok Sabha seats.

In the second list announced on Wednesday evening, the party announced 20 candidates each from Karnataka and Maharashtra, seven from Gujarat, six each from Haryana and Telangana, five from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and one each from Tripura and Dadar and Nagar Haveli.

Out of 20 candidates in the list, nine MPs, including former state unit chief Nalin Kateel and two-term Mysore MP Prathap Simha, have been changed. Simha, whose name cropped up in the Parliament security breach row, has been replaced by of the Mysore royal family. US-educated Wadiyar is the adopted son of