New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday ended the week-long speculation by releasing the names of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections here in the national capital. It features name of 34 union ministers along with several high-profile leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will contest third time from the Varanasi seat. 

The first BJP candidate list named 28 women, 47 leaders under the age of 50, and 57 members from the OBC community, giving equal representation to all sections of the society. 

Announcing the list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawade declared the candidates on - 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 9 seats from Telangana, 11 from Assam, 11 each from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, five from Delhi, two from Jammu and Kashmir, three from Uttarakhand, two from Arunachal Pradesh and one each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar, and Daman and Diu.

Besides PM Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Home Minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar in Gujarat. 

BJP Lok Sabha First List: 5 Big Takeaways

1. The list released by the saffron party comes days before the dates for Lok Sabha elections 2024 are announced by the Election Commission. The BJP has finalised face on 195 seats while the opposition INDI bloc is struggling to reach conclusion of seat sharing talks in many states. Taking the first mover advantage, the BJP candidates will get sufficient time to prepare for the polls. 
2. In an attempt to strengthen party hold in Delhi, the BJP announced candidates on five out of total seven seats of the national capital, fielding as many as four new faces. Notably, the party only retained Manoj Tiwari from the North East Delhi seat. It dropped sitting members of parliament such as Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi, former Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri and West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma. Given the fact that AAP and Congress are fighting Lok Sabha polls in alliance, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to win maximum seats. 
3. The BJP trusted its old guards in Uttar Pradesh while major changes were seen in the national capital seats. As many 46 sitting members of parliament (MP) have been repeated among the names of 51 candidates announced by the BJP from Uttar Pradesh. Though 29 names are still due for announcement, but the first list shows that saffron party is in no mood to experiment in UP which sends 80 MPs- highest among all states- to the Lok Sabha. 
4. The BJP's electoral performance in the southern India seats has been a major challenge on party lines as out of the 127 seats in five southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Lakshadweep, the BJP could win only 29 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In a bid to overturn the landscape, the BJP fielded Rajya Sabha MP and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram and Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader AK Antony, from Pathanamthitta seat in Kerala.
5. The BJP always focused on its outreach among Youth, Women, and backward community. Adding to it, the party named 28 women candidates, 27(13.84%) from Schedule Caste (SC) community, 18 (9.23%) from Schedule Tribe, and 57 (29.23%) from the Other Backward Class (OBC) community. The strategy will further bolster party's oputreach among specific communities.