BJP announces 2nd list of 72 candidates for Lok Sabha election; Nitin Gadkari to contest from Nagpur, ML Khattar from Karnal

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 13

Union Ministers Anurag Thakur, Piyush Goyal, Nitin Gadkari and Pralhad Joshi and three ex-chief ministers Basvaraj Bommai, ML Khattar and Trivendra Rawat have been fielded in the second list of 72 candidates unveiled by the BJP on Wednesday.

Anurag Thakur will defend his Hamirpur seat for the fifth time, Piyush Goyal, a Rajya Sabha MP, will contest from Mumbai North, while Nitin Gadkari will defend his Nagpur segment and Joshi Dharwad.

Bommai will contest from Karnataka’s Haveri, former Haryana CM Khattar from his home segment of Karnal and Trivendra Rawat from Hardwar.

Another BJP Rajya Sabha MP and national media chief of the party Anil Baluni has been nominated from Garhwal.

From Karnataka, BJYM chief Tejaswi Surya will defend the current segment of Bangalore South, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje from Bangalore North.

The BJP has also fielded ex-Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa (SC) dropping Sunita Duggal, while repeating Rao Inderjit from Gurugram, Dharambir Singh from Bhiwani Mahendragarh and Krishan Pal Gurjar from Faridabad.

From Himachal, two seats have been declared—Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur and sitting Shimla MP Suresh Kashyap from Shimla.

There are two ex-royals in the list—Yaduveer Chamaraja Wadiyar in Mysore and Maharani Kriti Singh Debbarma from Tripura East.