Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to participate in a campaign event in Meerut alongside Chaudhary Jayant Singh, the national president of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The event marks the initiation of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) electoral drive for the Lok Sabha from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, slated for Saturday, March 30.
During the rally, Prime Minister Modi will share the platform with Jayant Chaudhary, who leads the RLD, a recent addition to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition in anticipation of the Uttar Pradesh parliamentary elections.
A notable development in BJP's Meerut campaign is the nomination of actor Arun Govil, renowned for his portrayal of Lord Ram in the iconic TV series Ramayan, as the party's contender for the Meerut Lok Sabha constituency. Govil takes over from Rajendra Agarwal, a three-term MP who held the Meerut seat since 2004.
The BJP has disclosed candidates for a total of 402 Lok Sabha constituencies thus far, marking a significant departure by not fielding approximately 100 incumbent MPs.
As per the initial candidate list unveiled by the BJP on March 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek re-election from his parliamentary stronghold of Varanasi for the third consecutive term. In previous electoral contests, Modi triumphed over Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party in 2019 and emerged victorious against Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in the 2014 polls.
The party's candidate lists have witnessed the omission of 33 sitting MPs in the first installment, followed by 30 in the subsequent list, and 37 in the fifth list.
Prominent figures who failed to secure BJP tickets include Varun Gandhi, Pragya Thakur, Ramesh Bidhuri, Darshana Jardosh, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Pratap Simha, VK Singh, Anant Hegde, Ashwini Choubey, Harsh Vardhan, and Gautam Gambhir.
