New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party replaced as many as 33 sitting MPs with new faces as it released its first list with names of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Saturday. In what can be seen as a message for controversial leaders from the BJP high command, several notable figures such as Parvesh Verma, son of former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma, former Union minister and Hazaribagh MP Jayant Sinha, Bhopal MP Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, and South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri, who allegedly made communal remarks in Parliament, were missing from the party’s first list of candidates.
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The BJP named five candidates for Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, four of them replacement of sitting MPs. The BJP has named Praveen Khandelwal as its candidate from Chandani Chowk Lok Sabha Sabha seat, dropping two-term MP and former Union minister Harsh Vardhan. For the West Delhi seat, BJP replaced two-term MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma with Kamaljeet Sehrawat.
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It named Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, as its candidate from New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, currently held by Meenakshi Lekhi. From South Delhi, the BJP named Ramvir Singh Bidhuri as its candidate, dropping Ramesh Bidhuri.
