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bjp flag,lok sabha (PTI Photo)
In the eighth list, the party gave tickets to a number of turncoats like Bhartruhari Mahtab, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Sushil Kumar Rinku, and Preneet Kaur. Former Indian ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu will be making his poll debut from Amritsar, the party announced.
However, Bollywood celebrity Sunny Deol was absent from the list as the BJP fielded Dinesh Singh ‘Babbu’ instead of the sitting MP. Notably, the actor-turned-politician had long expressed his keenness to opt out of electoral politics.
BJP Lok Sabha candidate list for West Bengal
A significant inclusion in the BJP list for West Bengal is former IPS officer Debashish Dhar, who will represent West Bengal’s Birbhum seat. Dhar will contest against the incumbent three-time Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP, Satabdi Roy. Dhar was suspended as the Cooch Behar Superintendent of Police (SP) in the aftermath of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, during which four people were killed in the Sitalkuchi area in alleged firing by central forces. On March 20 this year, he resigned from service citing personal reasons.
Another notable candidate from West Bengal is Pranat Tudu, who will vie against TMC’s Kalipada Soren in Jhargram.
BJP’s candidates in Punjab
In Punjab, the BJP’s candidate list included three turncoats among its inaugural roster of six candidates for the state. The Aam Aadmi Party-ruled state has 13 Lok Sabha seats.
Preneet Kaur, the wife of former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, recently switched to the BJP in March, and has been fielded from Patiala again. She was suspended in February from her earlier party, the Congress, in February last year for ‘anti-party’ activities.
Ravneet Singh Bittu, grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, will contest from Ludhiana where he is the current MP. Bittu had recently defected from the Congress to the BJP on March 26. Sushil Kumar Rinku, a former AAP leader who switched to the BJP on March 27, has been fielded from Jalandhar. Rinku won the Lok Sabha bypolls from the same seat last year. Notably, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the former Indian ambassador to the US, will make his electoral debut from Amritsar.
Candidate list in Odisha
In Odisha, Bhartruhari Mahtab will contest from the prestigious Cuttack constituency after resigning from the Biju Janata Dal. Son of Odisha’s first Chief Minister Harekrushna Mahtab, he had recently resigned from the BJD. Mahtab, who has represented the constituency since 1998, will face BJD’s Santrupt Misra.
The BJP also named Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi for the communally-sensitive Kandhamal seat. Panigrahi has a strong RSS background and will face BJD’s Achyuta Samanta, who won the seat in 2019.
The BJP also revealed that Rabindra Narayan Behera will be up against BJD’s Sarmishta Sethi from Jajpur constituency, a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, thus completing its list of candidates for all 21 seats in the state.
First Published: Apr 01 2024 | 9:50 AM IST
