NEW DELHI: The BJP appears ready to spring yet another surprise with its third list of Lok Sabha candidates for many states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This round of dropping some high-profile sitting MPs will have a major bearing on politically crucial UP and Bihar. Put together, the two states send 120 MPs — 80 in UP and 40 in Bihar to Lok Sabha.Top BJP sources told this newspaper on Tuesday that the party would “mostly likely” change candidates on two seats, Pilibhit and Sultanpur, both in UP, represented by Varun Gandhi and his mother Maneka Sanjay Gandhi.LS Polls 2024: BJP drops 33 sitting MPs in first list; four dropped in Delhi for disconnect, inaccessibility At a recent meeting of the party’s core committee for UP and Bihar, the members discussed the scheme of things with party chief JP Nadda and home minister Amit Shah. It was decided to take the discussions to the next level at the forthcoming third meeting of Central Election Committee. “The seat-sharing is almost finalised with two seats — Baghpat and Bijnor — tentatively going to the RLD. The Ghosi seat is expected to go to the SBSP, while Apna Dal could have Mirzapur and Robertganj. As many as 28 LS seats, including Meerut, Pilibhit and Sultanpur, have been discussed,” said a senior leader.The party leadership is reportedly determined to field journalist-turned-politician and BJP national spokesperson Prem Kumar Shukla from Sultanpur. Shukla belongs to UP and joined the party about nine years ago from Shiv Sena. Piyush Goyal, Anurag Thakur, Nitin Gadkari in BJP’s second list of 72 candidates for Lok Sabha pollsThe other names doing the rounds are Sanjay Singh Gangwar and Jitin Prasada. The two are in the Yogi government, with Gangwar being MLA from Pilibhit. Sources said Varun Gandhi has turned a strong critic of the government at the Centre and that it was becoming difficult to accommodate him.“The final decisions on these two LS seats is to be taken by the CEC, which usually does not amend the list of shortlisted candidates,” said a party source, adding that the Meerut seat may also see a new face.The buzz is about two candidates for Meerut seat: Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in TV serial Ramayana, and Kumar Vishwas, an articulate speaker. Another theory is that Nupur Sharma could be considered from Rae Barelli seat.
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