Lok Sabha polls: BJP announces 11 names, benches 2 MPs in state

RANCHI: BJP has benched two of its sitting MPs, repeated the eight existing parliamentarians and brought in a party veteran as candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand. The saffron party on Saturday announced candidates for 11 parliamentary seats in the state and 195 seats nationally in the first phase.
The party's central leadership has replaced sitting Hazaribag MP Jayant Sinha, who is also a two-time MP and former Union minister between 2014-19, by sitting MLA Manish Jaiswal.The leadership also benched Lohardaga MP Sudharshan Bhagat and outgoing Rajya Sabha MP Sameer Oraon will now contest from the constituency.
Among the other candidates announced is sitting MP Geeta Koda, who as expected is fielded from the same seat (Singhbhum) following her change of allegiance from Congress to BJP recently. The other seven sitting MPs who will continue to be the party's candidates this year are Nishikant Dubey (Godda), Sanjay Seth (Ranchi), Union agriculture minister Arjun Munda (Khunti), Bidyut Baran Mahato (Jamshedpur), Sunil Soren (Dumka), Union minister Annapurna Devi (Koderma), V D Ram (Palamu). In Raj Mahal, a seat currently in JMM's kitty, BJP has fielded Tala Marandi, replacing last election's candidate Hemlal Murmu.
In the 2019 election, the NDA, comprising BJP and Ajsu-P, bagged 12 out of the total 14 parliamentary seats in the state. While BJP won 11, Ajsu-P got one (Giridih). This time, too, BJP and Ajsu-P are expected to contest on a 13:1 ratio. Of the remaining two seats, Congress and JMM won one each with the grand old party bagging the ST-reserved Singhbhum seat (Geeta Koda) and the tribal party taking Raj Mahal (Vijay Kumar Hansdak).
BJP is yet to announce candidates for Dhanbad and Chatra, where it is likely to replace both the sitting MPs, too. Speculation is rife that the saffron camp is eyeing the entry of Congress's Jharia MLA Purnima Niraj Singh into its fold after which she is likely to be named as the MP candidate from Dhanbad. Purnima is part of the 12 dissident Cong MLAs who have been vocal on various issues concerning the party affairs.
The party has also not announced the candidate yet for Giridih where C P Chaudhary is the sitting MP.
Hours before the announcement of the party benching him, Jayant Sinha took to X to inform that he is not contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha election and requested party president J P Nadda to relieve him from electoral politics so that he can spare his time to work on the issue of climate change.
He wrote, "I am grateful to my party and its top brass for reposing faith in me in the last decade giving me the chance to be a two-time MP from Hazaribag. I am also thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modiji and Home Minister, Amit Shahji, who have given me the opportunity to serve the country and my constituency."
(With inputs from Abhijit Sen in Hazaribag)