5 Union ministers on BJP’s second list, Piyush Goyal to make election debut

Mr Thakur will contest from Hamirpur.

New Delhi:

The BJP on Wednesday announced its second list of 72 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, which includes five Union ministers from different states, including Piyush Goyal, who will make his electoral debut . Colleagues on the list include Nitin Gadkari, Anurag Thakur, Pralhad Joshi and Rao Inderjit Singh.

Mr Goyal, a three-time member of the Lok Sabha, was fielded from the Mumbai North constituency, which has been held by the BJP’s Gopal Shetty since 2014. The minister in-charge of commerce and industry, textiles, food and consumer affairs was joined by health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and junior information technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, among others They made their debut in the Lok Sabha together.

The decision is in line with the BJP’s strategy of getting as many ministers as possible to contest and win the Lok Sabha polls instead of entering the cabinet through the Lok Sabha.

The selection of Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur as the candidate is not surprising as the road transport and highways minister has been elected from this seat since 2014. It raised eyebrows when Mr Gadkari’s name was not among the first list of 195 candidates released on March 2, which also included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Affairs Minister Minister Amit Shah and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh are among other party heavyweights.

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray even asked the minister to join hands with the opposition if he was “insulted” by the BJP. However, Gadkari rejected the Indian group leader’s invitation, calling it “immature” and “ridiculous”.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur’s name is one of the two names for four seats in Himachal Pradesh. He will contest from Hamirpur, a constituency he has won since 2008 and also controlled by his father Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Continuing to focus on the southern region – where the BJP needs to do well to increase the number of seats it won in the Lok Sabha from the 303 it won in 2019 to the 370 it wants this time – the party has fielded Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad, Karnataka. Mr Joshi has been the Dharwad MLA since 2009 and Karnataka contributed 25 of the 29 seats won by the BJP from southern states in 2019.

Rao Inderjit Singh, the minister of state who holds independent charge of the statistics department and holds other portfolios, will contest from Gurgaon. He has held the seat since 2009.