The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday named candidates in 24 of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh in its first list of 195 names announced for the 2024 Parliamentary elections.
According to the list, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been fielded from Vidisha constituency while Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia would contest from Guna.
The BJP, however, has not named its candidate for Chhindwara, the only seat it lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Shiv Mangal Singh Tomar will be contesting the election from Morena constituency. Madhya Pradesh unit BJP president V.D. Sharma would contest from Khajuraho, while Ganesh Singh has been retained from Satna constituency.
The BJP has also retained the sitting MP from Rewa, Janardan Mishra.
The BJP has fielded former Bhopal mayor Alok Sharma from Bhopal constituency. The party has replaced sitting MP Pragya Singh Thakur, who won the Lok Sabha election in 2019 against veteran Congress leader and two-time Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh.
Some other candidates of Madhya Pradesh are -- Rajesh Mishra (Sidhi), Durgadas Uike (Betul), Gyaneshwar Patil (Khandwa), Mahendra Solanki (Dewas), Ashish Dube (Jabalpur), Gajendra Patel (Khargone), Rodmal Nagar (Rajgarh), Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla), Sandhya Rai (Bhind), Sudhir Gupta (Mandsaur).
The list also includes names of Nita Singh Chouhan (Ratlam), Bharat Singh Kushwaha (Gwalior), Lata Vankhede (Sagar), Virendra Khateek (Tikamgarh), Rahul Lodhi (Damoh), and Himadri Singh (Shahdol).
The BJP won 28 of 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh in 2019. The party won 27 seats in 2014.