New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released the 5th list of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections and surprised all by fielding Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut from Mandi Lok Sabha seat In Himachal Pradesh and famous television actor Arun Govil from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut.


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Kangana took on X to express her gratitude to the BJP for fielding her for the LS Polls and promised her unwavering support to the saffron party. "My beloved Bharat and Bhartiya Janta’s own party, Bharatiya Janta party ( BJP) has always had my unconditional support, today the national leadership of BJP has announced me as their Loksabha candidate from my birthplace Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency) I abide by the high command’s decision on contesting Loksabha polls. I feel honoured and elated to officially join the party. I look forward to be a worthy karyakarta and a reliable public servant," wrote Kangana.



The party has released the names of 111 more candidates for the Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Telangana, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.


Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan will contest from Sambalpur and the party's spokesperson Sambit Patra will try his luck from Puri once again after losing out in a close contest in 2019.


The party fielded Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, while Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada has replaced Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit. Sita Soren will fight from Dumka (Jharkhand).


The party has dropped ex-Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada constituency. BJP also dropped Union Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey from Buxar and replaced him with Mithilesh Tiwari.


The party has also axed the name of the three-time Lok Sabha MP Varun Gandhi and fielded Jitin Prasada, a minister in the state government Pilibhit.


In its 5th list, the BJP named candidates for all 17 seats it is contesting in Bihar, renominating Union minister Giriraj Singh from Begusarai and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib.


Former Congress MP Naveen Jindal who joined the BJP today will contest from Haryana's Kurukshetra on BJP ticket. Industrialist Naveen Jindal represented the Kurukshetra constituency in the Lok Sabha for two terms (2004-2014). However, he lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Raj Kumar Saini in the 2014 national elections and was not fielded by the Congress in 2019. 


Voting for Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1. The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.