BJP announces 8th list of candidates; fields rebel Congress MP from Patiala

New Delhi [India], March 30 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its eighth list of candidates in Punjab, Odisha and West Bengal for the Lok Sabha Elections.
In Punjab, the BJP has given a ticket to former Congress MP and former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's wife Preneet Kaur from Patiala, the same seat she had won in Congress in the 2019 general elections.
Preneet Kaur recently joined BJP. She was suspended by the Congress in February last year for anti-party activities.
Along with this, Bollywood actor Sunny Deol ticket has been cancelled from the Gurdaspur seat and has been given to Dinesh Singh "Babbu".
Taranjit Singh Sandhu will contest from Amritsar, Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar, Ludhiana--Ravneet Singh Bittu and Faridkot--- Hans Raj Hans.
In Odisha, Rabindra Narayan Behera has been fielded from Jajpur seat, Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi from Kandhamal and Bhartruhari Mahtab from Cuttack.
In West Bengal, the BJP has announced the candidature of former IPS officer Debashish Dhar from Birbhum and Pranat Tudu from Jhargram.
Earlier today, the BJP announced the Election Manifesto Committee for the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
BJP president JP Nadda announced the 27-member committee which will be headed by defence minister and former BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister Piyush Goyal will be convenor and co-convenors, respectively.
Arjun Munda, Bhupender Yadav, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Kiren Rijiju, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Bhupender Patel are included as members in the committee.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai and Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav are also included in the list.
Meanwhile, Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases beginning April 19.
Nearly 96.8 crore people are eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming polls at over 12 lakh polling stations.
The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19.
The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 282 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 44 seats.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 303 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 52 seats. (ANI)