New Delhi: Actors Kangana Ranaut and Arun Govil, former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay and industrialist Naveen Jindal are among the big names in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) fifth list of 111 Lok Sabha candidates from 16 states released on Sunday.
As per the list, Kangana has been fielded from Mandi seat in Himachal Pradesh, while
former justice Gangopadhyay would be in fray from Tamluk in West Bengal.
Thanking the party after the announcement, Kangana said, "My beloved Bharat and Bhartiya Janta's party, Bharatiya Janta party (BJP) has always had my unconditional support, today the national leadership of BJP has announced me as their Loksabha candidate from my birthplace Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency) I abide by the high command's decision on contesting Lok Sabha polls."
The saffron party dropped Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and allotted the seat to former Congress leader Jitin Prasada. Former Union Minister and Varun's mother Maneka Gandhi has been fielded from Sultanpur in U.P.
Industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who joined the BJP earlier in the day, has been named as the party contestant from the Kurukshetra seat in Haryana.
Actor Arun Govil, who played Ram in the popular TV serial Ramayan, would join the electoral battle from U.P's Meerut Lok Sabha seat.
Arjun Singh and Tapas Roy, who recently joined the BJP from the TMC, will contest from Barrackpore and Kolkata North seats respectively in West Bengal.
In Bihar, the party has opted for Union ministers R.K Singh from Arrah, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Giriraj Singh from Begusarai. Among former Union ministers, Ravi Shankar Prasad will fight from Patna Sahib, Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran, Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran, and Ram Kripal Yadav from Pataliputra.
The BJP named Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan is its candidate from Sambalpur and senior leader Sambit Patra from Puri in Odisha.
The list was released after the BJP's Central Election Committee met on Saturday to finalise the party's candidates.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh BJP president J P Nadda and other members attended the meeting.
The seven-phase polls are set to be held between April 19 and June 1 to elect MPs for 543 Lok Sabha seats, with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4.