For some, it’s Holi hai! For some others, it’s bura naa mano Holi hai! The chunky fifth Lok Sabha list of candidates announced by the BJP on Sunday night sprang contrary surprises; it pleased some, it pained some.

The BJP named actors Kangana Ranaut and Arun Govil, of Ramayan fame, as its Lok Sabha candidates while denying Varun Gandhi and V.K. Singh, although it re-nominated Maneka Gandhi.

Another surprise name on the party’s fifth list of 111 candidates was that of industrialist Naveen Jindal, who was a prominent Congress leader even on Sunday morning. He has been fielded from Kurukshetra seat in Haryana hours after he jumped ship and joined the BJP.

Kangana, whose pro-BJP and pro-Modi comments have often caused controversy, has been fielded from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Govil,
who portrayed Ram in the popular 1980s TV series, Ramayan, will contest from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

Varun, sitting MP from Pilibhit, has been replaced with Jitin Prasada, who defected from the Congress in 2021 and is currently a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.

Varun’s mother Maneka has, however, been re-nominated from Sultanpur, a seat she won the last time, too.

Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who recently took voluntary retirement and joined the BJP, has been nominated for the Tamluk seat in Bengal.

V.K. Singh, former army chief and currently a junior minister in the Narendra Modi government, has been denied re-nomination from Ghaziabad, a seat he currently holds.

Ananth Kumar Hegde, known for his divisive comments, has been dropped from the Uttara Kannada seat that he represents.

Pallavi Dempo, a prominent industrialist like Jindal, has been fielded from South Goa.

“My beloved Bharat and Bhartiya Janta’s own party, Bharatiya Janta party (BJP) has always had my unconditional support,” Kangana posted on X, adding she was “honoured and elated”.

“Today the national leadership of BJP has announced me as their Loksabha candidate from my birthplace Himachal Pradesh, Mandi (constituency) I abide by the high command’s decision on contesting Loksabha polls.”

Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a Rajya Sabha member, has been fielded from Sambalpur in Odisha while party spokesperson Sambit Patra has been fielded again from Puri. Patra had made his poll debut in 2019 but lost.

With its attempt to stitch an alliance with the BJD in Odisha falling through, the BJP has announced candidates for all the 21 seats in the state. Baijayant Panda, a former BJD leader, will contest on a BJP ticket from Kendrapara.

The list spans states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Goa and Karnataka.

Sita Soren, sister-in-law of the jailed Hemant Soren, former Jharkhand chief minister, has been fielded from Dumka (ST) seat.

In Bihar, most sitting members have been repeated. Among them are former Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad (Patna Sahib) and Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Sarab). Union minister Giriraj Singh has been re-nominated from Begusarai.

Cong switch

The power of social media appears to have forced a strong Congress candidate to withdraw from the electoral race.

The Congress was compelled to replace Sunil Sharma, who was fielded from Jaipur, with former state minister Pratap Singh Khachariywas. Sharma, a loyal Congressman and academic, pulled out after a controversy erupted over his association with Jaipur Dialogues, a stridently Right-wing organisation known for ridiculing Rahul Gandhi and the Congress.

Sharma issued a statement claiming that he parted ways with Jaipur Dialogues long ago.