New names less than half; more changes in seats BJP won in 2019 rather than lost: First list for LS polls

With its first list of Lok Sabha candidates out, the poll season is well underway for the BJP. Of the 195 candidates announced across 18 states, 79, or less than half, are new faces compared to the BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha list, as the confident ruling party looks to hit its ambitious target of 370 seats set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The party has opted to re-field 108 sitting BJP MPs and 8 leaders who lost last time. Of the 79 new faces, only 3 are sitting MPs who recently joined the party.

The least changes have been made in states where the BJP dominates, such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. The states with a major reshuffle include Assam (where the Opposition has strung together a 15-member front), Chhattisgarh (where the Congress remains strong), Delhi (where the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress have formed a coalition) and Kerala (where the BJP is trying to increase its footprint).

In all, the BJP has dropped 33 sitting MPs, including high-profile exclusions of Harsh Vardhan, Meenakshi Lekhi and Ramesh Bidhuri in Delhi, Pratima Bhowmik in Tripura, and Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in Madhya Pradesh. While Union minister Jayant Sinha asked to be relieved of direct electoral duties, several other MPs won last year’s Assembly polls to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and have thus been replaced.

Of the 79 seats with new candidates, those that the party won last time (43) outnumber those it lost (34). It is also because many of the sitting MPs are now MLAs. Two others are constituencies where the BJP did not contest in 2019.

A breakdown:

Of the 79 seats where the BJP has fielded a new face this time, the party had lost 34 to Opposition parties in 2019. Most of these seats are in Kerala, West Bengal and Telangana (all ruled