Lok Sabha Elections 2024: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party released its second list of candidates. A total of 72 candidates, including Union ministers Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur), Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh), and Piyush Goyal (Mumbai north) were named in the second list of the BJP candidates.
As the longest-serving Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari is credited to have brought about India’s eye-watering big transport upgrade during Modi’s years in power since 2014. Gadkari will contest from Nagpur constituency in central India for the third time in a row.
Anurag Thakur, the son of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, has been entrusted with several portfolios in Modi cabinet since 2014. He first won from Hamirpur in 2008 in a Lok Sabha by-poll election and has never lost an election from the Himachal Pradesh constituency since. Thakur is now contesting the election from Hamirpur for the fifth time in a row. 
Piyush Goyal, son of former union minister Ved Prakash Goyal, entered New Delhi’s corridors of power after getting elected through Rajya Sabha. An alumnus of Mumbai’s HR College of Commerce, Modi cabinet’s professional chartered accountant has been named a BJP candidate from Mumbai North constituency. 
Union parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi has been named the BJP candidate from Dharwad constituency in the southern Karnataka state.
The BJP has also decided to set the electoral note by playing through the popularity of the former chief ministers. Former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who resigned as state CM just on March 12, has been named the BJP candidate from the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will contest from Haveri constituency. Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has been named the BJP candidate from the Haridwar constituency.
