Lok Sabha Election: BJP releases list of 36 candidates, fields Sambit Patra from Puri

New Delhi, Mar 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released list of 36 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, fielding party spokesperson Sambit Patra from Puri.

There had been speculation that the prime minister may opt for temple town of Puri, but the party had dismissed the rumours and said he is likely to stick with Varanasi.

The list announced late on Friday night also contained names of six candidates for Maharashtra and five for Odisha. Also, one candidate each for Assam and Meghalaya has been announced in the list.

"We have come out with list of 36 new candidates which includes Odisha BJP President Basant Panda, senior leader Suresh Pujari and our spokesperson Sambit Patra. We would like to clear the 1st & 2nd phase candidates as soon as possible and we're working on it, said JP Nadda after the CEC meet.

The BJP central election committee met here on Friday to finalise the party's candidates in several states for the Lok Sabha elections with its top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, taking part in the exercise.

The states, where the party's nominees for the polls were discussed, included Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat and Goa.

The BJP had on Thursday released its first list of 184 candidates for the elections to 543-member Lok Sabha. Names of Modi and Shah figured in the list with the prime minister being fielded from Varanasi, the constituency he currently represents in the Lok Sabha.

The highlight of the list was the party's decision to field Shah from Gandhinagar in place of its veteran leader L K Advani.