New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled its 10th list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday, naming Neeraj Shekhar, a member of the Rajya Sabha, as their choice for Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia constituency. Neeraj Shekhar, who is the progeny of the late Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, has previously served as a Lok Sabha MP for the same constituency from 2007 to 2014 under the SP banner, a seat his father once held. Following his defeat in the 2014 elections to a BJP contender, Shekhar was appointed to the Rajya Sabha. After not being nominated by the SP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shekhar resigned from the SP and joined the BJP, which subsequently nominated him to the Upper House.

In a strategic move, the BJP has positioned Paras Nath Rai to contest from Ghazipur, setting the stage for a face-off with Afzal Ansari of the Samajwadi Party and Congress coalition.

The list released also introduced eight fresh contenders, alongside a significant change for West Bengal’s Asansol, where Bhojpuri celebrity Pawan Singh has been replaced by the incumbent BJP MP SS Ahluwalia.

The BJP has also allocated tickets to Sanjay Tandon for Chandigarh and B.P. Saroj for Machhlishahr. Jaiveer Singh Thakur is set to challenge from Mainpuri, a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, which has re-nominated Dimple Yadav for the seat.

Vinod Sonkar is slated to contest from Kaushambi, while Praveen Patel has been designated for the Phulpur seat. Neeraj Tripathi will represent the party from Prayagraj.

The seven-phase electoral battle for the 543 Lok Sabha seats is scheduled to commence on April 19, with nearly 97 crore voters eligible to participate. The vote count is set for June 4. In a historical context, the BJP secured 303 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, overshadowing the Indian National Congress (INC), which managed only 52 seats. This followed the BJP’s 282-seat victory in the 2014 elections, with the INC securing 44 seats.