Understanding BJP's Fifth Candidate List In 9 Points: Two Actors, Many New Joiners Get Tickets, Maximum MPs Repeated In Bihar

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its fifth list of candidates on Sunday (24 March) with 111 names. The list features two actors and many turncoats who recently joined the party.

1. Actors: Kangana Ranaut got a ticket from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi and Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan fame Arun Govil got a ticket from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut.

2. Turncoats: Among the notable turncoats to get a ticket is former YSR Congress Party MP Varaprasad Rao, who joined the party earlier in the day and got a ticket from Tirupati by night.

The other new joiners to get a ticket are former Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA Sita Soren, who got a ticket from Dumka and two former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders.

The sitting Barrackpur MP Arjun Singh, who was denied a ticket by TMC, got the BJP ticket from here. Tapas Roy also recently joined the BJP and got a ticket from Kolkata Uttar.

3. New joiner: Another notable figure to get a ticket in West Bengal is former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who resigned earlier this month. He got a ticket from Tamluk, a TMC bastion since 2009.

5. Karnataka: Former Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar is set to contest from Belgaum, a BJP bastion since 2004.

6. Uttar Pradesh: While sitting Sultanpur MP Maneka Gandhi got a ticket from here, her son Varun Gandhi was denied a ticket from Pilibhit. Instead, former Congress leader Jitin Prasada got a ticket from here.

7. Bihar: The BJP has given tickets to 14 sitting MPs. Only Ashwini Kumar Chaubey of Buxar and Chhedi Paswan of Sasaram have been replaced by Mithilesh Tiwari and Shivesh Ram respectively.

Nawada is a new seat for the BJP as last time it was under the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) quota. Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur has been given a ticket from here.

8. Gujarat: Of the six names from Gujarat in this list, only one sitting MP, Rajeshbhai Chudasama has been repeated from Amreli, rest five are new faces.

9. Haryana: Similar is the case in Haryana, where only Rohtak MP Arvind Kumar Sharma has been repeated and new faces have been fielded from Kurukshetra, Hisar and Sonipat.