Hema Malini leads BJP’s status quo 1st list for LS polls

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The BJP has, however, done a few experiments in Delhi where the party dropped ex-cricketer Gautam Gambhir and Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi to introduce Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj.

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By Manish Anand

New Delhi, March 2: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 75-year old Hema Malini from Mathura Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh for third time in a row. The BJP unveiled its first list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had held a marathon meeting of the central election committee of the party on Thursday.

A run through the BJP list shows the party’s cautious approach for the Lok Sabha elections. Seventy three years old Jagdambika Pal has retained the BJP nomination from the Domariyaganj Lok Sabha seat in UP. Sixty nine years old Lallu Singh also has bagged the BJP nomination to contest the Lok Sabha election from Faizabad. The BJP’s first list of the candidates may come out as a repeat of the sitting MPs, as well as the party hoppers who recently joined the saffron outfit getting the tickets to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

The first list of the candidates includes names of 34 ministers at the Centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek reelection from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency in UP. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah will seek reelection from the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency. Union Minister for Defence Rajnath Singh has been repeated from the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.

Union Ministers with the Rajya Sabha pedigree – Bhupender Yadav (Alwar, Rajasthan), Puroshottam Rupala (Rajkot, Gujarat), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar, Gujarat), and V. Muraleedharan (Attingal, Kerala) have been fielded by the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections.

The party hoppers – Ritesh Pandey (Ambedkar, ex-BSP), Anil Antony (Pathanamthitta, Kerala), and others – have also found places in the first list of the BJP candidates. The saffron outfit has given a substantive number of tickets to the candidates from the OBC (57), SC (27), and ST (18) backgrounds. In all, The BJP has fielded a total of 112 out of the 195 from the backward castes. The Congress, incidentally, is seeking the caste census in the country.

Hema Malini symbolizes the BJP’s apparent aversion for bold experiments in candidate selection, at least visible in the first list. In some quarters, it’s being said that the BJP has set the best foot forward. Modi will be leading the BJP charge to win a third straight mandate in the Lok Sabha elections.

Malini was widely being speculated to miss out from the BJP list for two reasons – her age and the likely alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Sal (RLD). But she survived the BJP’s stated position to phase out incumbent MPs who are 75 years of age and above out of electoral politics. Also, the RLD has been given a message that the BJP would not be leaving more than two Lok Sabha seats. The RLD’s claim in Muzaffarnagar also now stands rejected after the BJP fielded the Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan from the seat.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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