NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released its first list of 184 candidates for 20 States for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to fight from his seat of Varanasi, and party president Amit Shah also throwing his hat in the ring from Gandhinagar, represented six times by former party strongman L. K. Advani.

The party retained most sitting MPs, the biggest drops in Uttar Pradesh with six candidates replaced in a list of 21, reports said.

Union Minister for health J. P. Nadda released the list on Thursday evening, but refused to comment on Mr Advani being replaced by Mr Shah in Gandhinagar, reports said.

BJP sources have been quoted as saying that the decision on whether Mr Advani would like to contest was left to him, as was the case with former party president Murli Manohar Joshi.

This was discussed in the parliamentary board of the party two weeks ago.

As for Mr Shah, senior leaders of the party said that the party needed a heavyweight replacement for Mr Advani, and with Prime Minister Modi not contesting from Gujarat, Mr Shah was the natural choice, reports said.

It is also a sign of Mr Shah’s undisputed pre-eminence in the BJP and its affairs both in Gujarat and nationally. It is the comprehensive end of an era for the BJP.

In the electorally crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP faces a formidable alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, the first list saw 28 names announced including that of Prime Minister Modi from Varanasi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi (to take on Congress president Rahul Gandhi).

Names of BJP leaders Maneka Gandhi who represents Pilibhit and her son Varun Gandhi representing Sultanpur were also not announced.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2019