Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP's First Candidate List Soon; PM Modi, Amit Shah's Name Likely

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to announce its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 on March 1 or 2. A crucial meeting of the BJP Central Election Committee will be held tomorrow in which the party is likely to finalize the first candidate list. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah's names are likely to feature in the first list. Modi is likely to contest from the Varanasi once again. 

Uttar Pradesh MPs To Face Heat

The BJP has 62 MPs in the Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. However, the BJP is likely to cut the tickets of at least half of the MPs whose performance was not deemed up to the mark for re-election. The BJP is aiming to win all 80 seats of Uttar Pradesh and thus may go tough against the MPs who did not do well in their constituencies.

New Faces In Rajasthan

In the 2019 polls, the BJP had cleanly swept the Rajasthan with the NDA winning all the 25 seats. Of the 24 seats that the BJP won, it fielded 7 of them in the recently concluded assembly elections. Four of the seven MPs won the assembly poll and resigned as the MPs - Diya Kumari, Baba Balak Nath, Rajyavardhan Rathore and Kirodi Lal Meena. Now, it is being speculated that three MPs who lost the assembly polls may not get the ticket for the 2024 polls. They are Bhagirath Choudhary, Narendra Kumar and Devji Patel. Besides, them, the BJP is also likely to not field at least 5-6 MPs again. Thus, the saffron party may field at least a dozen of new faces in Rajasthan. 

NDA's Mission 400

The NDA is aiming to win over 400 seats this time with the BJP setting a personal target of 370 seats. The BJP is looking to make significant gains in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Political experts like Prashant Kishor are of the opinion that while the BJP may not win 370 seats, it might retain the current number of seats comfortably.