The BJP on Wednesday released its second list of 72 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, which included names like former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
This comes a day after Manohar Lal Khattar resigned from his post along with his cabinet ministers. He has been fielded from the Karnal Lok Sabha seat.
A few hours before the BJP's list came, Khattar resigned as an MLA from the Karnal assembly constituency.
Meanwhile, Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari will contest the polls from the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra. He had won the seat consecutively in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Gadkari had defeated Congress's Nana Patole in 2019.
A day before the BJP's second list was announced, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray asked Nitin Gadkari to leave the BJP if he was being "insulted". Thackeray said the Maha Vikas Aghadi will ensure Gadkari's victory in the Lok Sabha polls.
Gadkari replied saying Uddhav Thackeray's "offer" was "immature and ridiculous".
Other prominent names in the BJP's second list of candidates include former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai (from Haveri), Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad), party MP Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South), cabinet minister Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North) and ex-Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat (Hardwar).
Three former chief ministers -- Manohar Lal Khattar, Basavaraj Bommai and Trivendra Singh Rawat -- have been included in the party's list of 72 candidates.
The BJP released the first list of 195 candidates on March 2. With the new list, 267 candidates have been announced by the party.
