The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released its 10th list of 9 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, fielding party’s Rajya Sabha MP Neeraj Shekhar from Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia.

Neeraj Shekhar, the son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, was a Lok Sabha MP from 2007 to 2014, representing Samajwadi Party from Ballia, the constituency earlier held by his father. In 2014, Shekhar lost the polls to his BJP rival and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

Shekhar joined the BJP after he was denied the ticket of Samajwadi Party in 2019 Lok Sabha election. The BJP later nominated him to the Upper House of Parliament.

The BJP has named Paras Nath Rai from Ghazipur who will take on Afzal Ansari, a candidate of the Samajwadi Party and Congress alliance.

The list which was released on Wednesday had eight new names, while the party replaced its candidate from West Bengal’s Asansol.

The party earlier fielded Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh from Asansol, who has now been replaced by sitting BJP MP SS Ahluwalia.

BJP has fielded Sanjay Tandon from Chandigarh, while B.P. Saroj has been given a ticket from Machhlishahr.

Jaiveer Singh Thakur will contest from Mainpuri, a Samajwadi Party’s bastion. The SP re-nominated Dimple Yadav from the seat.

Vinod Sonkar will fight from Kaushambi while Praveen Patel will contest the elections from the Phulpur seat.

Neeraj Tripathi has been fielded from Prayagraj.

The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election.

The counting of votes will take place on June 4. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 303 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to secure only 52 seats.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 282 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) managed to get only 44 seats.

(Inputs from ANI)