PM Narendra Modi's message after party announces 1st list: 'Bow to crores...'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi bowed to the crores of selfless party workers for their faith in him as he would be contesting from Varanasi once again in the Lok Sabha election 2024. The party announced the first list of 195 candidates who will be contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha election and it started with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. "I thank the BJP4India leadership and bow to the crores of selfless Party Karyakartas for their constant faith in me. I look forward to serving my sisters and brothers of Kashi for the third time," Modi posted on X.

Lok Sabha election 2024: Here is BJP's 1st list of 195 candidates

"In 2014, I went to Kashi with a commitment to fulfil people’s dreams and empower the poorest of the poor. Over the last ten years, we have made significant progress across various sectors and worked towards a better Kashi. These efforts will continue with even greater vigour. I would also like to convey a special gratitude to the people of Kashi for their blessings, which I cherish greatly." PM Modi added.

“Our Party has announced candidates for some of the seats and will be announcing the rest in the coming days. I congratulate all those who have been nominated as our Party’s candidates and wish them the very best. We are going to the people on the basis of our track record of good governance and ensuring the fruits of progress reach the poorest of the poor. I am sure that the 140 crore people of India will bless us yet again and give us even more strength in fulfilling their aspirations and creating a Viksit Bharat,” PM Modi wrote.

Union home minister Amit Shah will be contesting from Gandhinagar and Union defence minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow. The list of candidates for the 195 constituencies included nearly 155 seats the party had won in the 2019 polls. In this list, The party has dropped over 20 per cent of its MPs.

Seven ministers, who were members of Rajya Sabha and were expected to fight the Lok Sabha elections, have been fielded in the polls.

Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna (Madhya Pradesh), Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh (Assam), Bhupender Yadav from Alwar (Rajasthan), Rajeev Chandrashekhar from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), V Muraleedharan Parshottam Rupala from Rajkot (Gujarat) and Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar (Gujarat).

Announcing the names of candidates, BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde said they include 28 women, 47 persons below 50 years of age, 27 from Scheduled Castes, 18 from Scheduled Tribes and 57 from Other Backward Classes.

The first list has 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 15 each from from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, nine from Telangana, 11 each from Assam, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, five from Delhi, three from Uttarakhand, two each from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, and one each from Goa, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will fight again from Kota in Rajasthan and Shivraj Singh Chouhan returns to his former parliamentary constituency Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, which he represented for five terms before taking over as the state's chief minister in 2005.