BJP brings 2 new faces in Himachal; drops Vajpayee's nephew in MP

March 24, 2019 09:15

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday dropped two of its four MPs, including former chief minister Shanta Kumar, from its list of candidates for all the four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh.

The party re-nominated Anurag Thakur, the son of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, from Hamirpur and Ram Swaroop Sharma from Mandi.

The saffron party also replaced its Shimla candidate, Virender Kashyap, with Pachhad MLA Suresh Kashyap.

Shanta Kumar, 84, had told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday that he was unwilling to contest the parliamentary election. With this, the former chief minister has apparently retired from electoral politics.

The BJP, which had won all the four Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 election, fielded state minister and Dharamshala legislator Kishan Kapoor from Kangra in place of Shanta Kumar.

Kishan Kapoor, 68, is currently the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister in the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government.

Suresh Kashyap, 48, has worked in the Indian Air Force for more than 16 years.

Ram Swaroop Sharma was fielded from Mandi despite former telecom minister Sukh Ram's grandson, Aashray Sharma, being also a claimant.

The BJP also declared candidates for 15 out of 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, dropping five sitting MPs, including Anoop Mishra, nephew of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mishra, MP from Morena, had lost the 2018 assembly polls from Bhitarwar seat. He has been replaced by Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, currently representing Gwalior Lok Sabha seat.

The other four MPs who have been dropped are Gyan Singh from Shahdol, Bhind's Bhagirath Prasad, Chintaman Malviya from Ujjain and Betul's Jyoti Dhurve.

The BJP has fielded Himadri Singh, a former Congress leader who recently joined the BJP and daughter of former Congress MP and ex-Union Minister Dalbir Singh, from Shahdol (ST) seat.

From Bhind (SC), the BJP has fielded Sandhya Rai replacing sitting MP, Bhagirath Prasad, a former IAS officer. From Ujjain (SC), Anil Firojiya has been given a ticket in place of sitting MP Chintaman Malviya.

Firojiya, had, incidentally, lost from Tarana in the 2018 assembly election. Dhruve has been replaced by Durgadas Uike in Betul (ST) seat.

Those who have been re-nominated are BJP state unit chief Rakesh Singh from Jabalpur, Union minister Virendra Kumar from Tikarmgarh, former Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla, former state BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan from Khandwa, former Union minister Prahlad Patel from Damoh, Ganesh Singh from Satna, Janardan Mishra from Rewa, Riti Pathak from Sidhi, Uday Pratap Singh from Hoshangabad and Sudhir Gupta from Mandsaur. -- PTI

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