BJP denies tickets to Shanta Kumar, Kariya Munda

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday came out with its fifth list of 48 candidates, denying tickets to party veterans Shanta Kumar and Kariya Munda while shifting Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to Morena from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

Besides Kumar and Munda, the party has also denied tickets to six sitting MPs -- four from Madhya Pradesh and one each from Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

The fifth list has candidates for both of Goa's seats, 15 from Madhya Pradesh, 10 from Jharkhand, 15 from Gujarat, all four from Himachal Pradesh and two from Karnataka.

The names were finalised on Friday in a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) headed by party President Amit Shah and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari, among others.

In Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP tasted defeat in the recent Assembly polls, the party has denied tickets to four sitting MPs -- Bhagirath Prasad from Bhind, Gyan Singh from Shahdol, Chintamani Malviya from Ujjain and Jyoti Dhurve from Betul.

They have been replaced by Sandhya Rai (Bhind), Himadri Singh (Shahdol), Anil Firojia (Ujjain) and Durgadas Uikey (Betul).

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won 26 out of the 29 parliamentary seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Tomar has been shifted to Morena, the seat represented by Anoop Mishra, nephew of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Among the 15 candidates from Madhya Pradesh whose names were announced on Saturday, the following have retained their seats -- Union Minister Virendra Kumar Khateek (Tikamgarh), Prahlad Patel (Damoh), Ganesh Singh (Satna), Janardan Mishra (Rewa), Riti Pathak (Sidhi), state BJP chief Rakesh Singh (Jabalpur), former Union Minister Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla), Uday Pratap Singh (Hoshangabad), Sudhir Gupta (Mandsaur) and former state BJP head Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan (Khandwa).

The BJP also released the names of 15 candidates from Gujarat, denying ticket to Surendranagar MP Devji Bhai Fatepara who has been replaced by Mahendra Bhai Munjpara.

Those who retained their seats are -- Vinod Bhai Chavda (Kachchh), Dipsinh Radhod (Sabarkantha), Kirit Bhai Solanki (Ahmedabad West), Mohan Bhai Kundariya (Rajkot), Punamben Madam (Jamnagar), Naran Bhai Kchhadia (Amreli), Bharti Ben Shiyal (Bhavnagar), Devusinh Chauhan (Kheda), Jashvant Singh Bhabhor (Dahod), Mansukh Bhai Vasava (Bharuch), Prabhu Bhai Vasava (Bardoli), C.R. Patil (Navsari) and K.C. Patel (Valsad).

The fifth list also features two other Union Ministers -- Jayant Sinha and Shripad Yesso Naik. Sinha will contest from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand while Naik will again contest from North Goa. South Goa MP Narendra Keshav Sawaikar has also been re-nominated.

In Jharkhand, the party has denied ticket to former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Munda. He has been replaced by former Chief Minister Arjun Munda.

The party has also re-nominated Nishikant Dubey (Godda), Pashupati Nath Singh (Dhanbad), Vidhyut Varan Mahato (Jamshedpur), Laxman Giluva (Singhbhum), Union Minister Sudarshan Bhagat (Lohardaga) and Vishnu Dayal Ram (Palamau).

The list also features some other prominent names in Himachal Pradesh, including Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur and Ramswaroop Sharma from Mandi. The party has denied ticket to Shimla MP Virendra Kashyap who has been replaced by Suresh Kashyap.

The BJP has fielded S. Muniswami from Kolar in Karnataka and has supported an independent candidate, Sumalatha, in Mandya.

The party also declared its candidates for the Assembly by-polls for three seats each in Gujarat and Goa. The by-polls will be held along with the Lok Sabha polls in the third phase on April 23.