"I will win with more votes than last time," says Nitin Gadkari after BJP announced its first list of Lok Sabha 2019 candidates

In the race up to the Lok Sabha elections that are scheduled to be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, the BJP released its first list that includes 182 candidates.  The party's central election committee (CEC) met on Wednesday evening as a part of its deliberations to consolidate the candidate list. 

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The list that includes the names of 22 current Union Ministers, Roads Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will be contesting from Nagpur, Maharashtra. Speaking over the seat, a confident Nitin Gadkari said that he would win the elections with an 'even better margin'

He said,  "Party has expressed its faith in me, I will win with an even better margin this time. People of Nagpur supported me last time as well. They are happy with our work, we will do even better after getting elected again."

"The party has shown support to me. I will win with more votes than last time. I believe People will support me," he added. 

Along with him, the first list includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, I&B and Sports Minister Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, MoS External Affairs General VK Singh, and others.

Here are the list of 22 ministers in the candidate list:

• Narendra Modi  will contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh
• Dr. Satyapal Singh will contest from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh
• Dr. Mahesh Sharma will contest from Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh
• Santosh Kumar Gangwar will contest from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh
• Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh
• Smriti Irani will contest from Amethi  in Uttar Pradesh
• Subhash Ramrao Bhamre will contest from Dhule in Maharashtra
• Nitin Gadkari will contest from Nagpur in Maharashtra 
• Hansraj Gangaram Ahir will contest from Chandrapur in Maharashtra
• Kirren Rijiju will contest from Arunachal East in Arunachal Pradesh
• Anantkumar Hegde will contest from Uttara Kannada in Karnataka
• DV Sadananda Gowda will contest from Bengaluru North in Karnataka
• Alphons Kannanthanam will contest from Ernakulam in Maharashtra
• Jual Oram will contest from Sundargarh in Odisha
• Col Rajyavardhan Rathore will contest from Jaipur Rural in Rajasthan
• Arjun Ram Meghwal will contest from Bikaner (SC) in Rajasthan
• PP Chaudhary will contest from Pali in Rajasthan
• Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will contest from Jodhpur in Rajasthan 
• Pon Radhakrishnan will contest from Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu
• Ajay Tamta will contest from Almora in Uttarakhand
• Babul Supriyo will contest from Asansol in West Bengal
• VK Singh will contest from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh

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