BJP releases LS candidate list: Shah to replace Advani in Gandhinagar

The BJP released the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. PM Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi, BJP president Amit Shah will contest from Gandhinagar in place of L.K. Advani. Rajnath Singh will be fielded from Lucknow, and Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur. Union ministers V.K. Singh, Mahesh Sharma, Smriti Irani to fight from Ghaziabad, Noida, Amethi, respectively. Alphonse Kannanthanam will contest from Ernakulam. 

BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had on Wednesday said the party would choose candidates for the Lok Sabha polls on the basis of their capability and chances of winning.

The BJP has a specific mechanism for ticket distribution under which local-level feedback of the candidate is taken, analysed and sent to central board of the party for its decision, he said at the party's New India Conclave on 'Empowered Modi-Empowered India' here.

It will be party's effort to consider all possibilities, besides winnability while distributing tickets, Trivedi.