Lok Sabha elections: Opposition says BJP's first list has nothing new, is admission of defeat

Moitra has denied any wrongdoing and claimed she was being targeted as she had raised questions on the deals of the Adani group.

A “presumed list” of prominent figures and a “declaration of the hopelessness” is how opposition parties have described the BJP’s first list of candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress took note of the BJP dropping several MPs and demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for foisting "incompetent" leaders on the public over the past five years.

In a long video posted on the X platform, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said Modi’s charisma was fizzling out. “We don’t know their reasons but we do understand that several people want to maintain distance from the BJP,” Khera said.

The Congress also said the list, which was announced on March 2, carried expected names and had nothing new to offer.

"They haven't introduced anything novel. The question remains about the public's acceptance of the BJP,” Congress’ Deepak Babaria was quoted as saying by ANI. 

“While they talk about reaching 400 seats, they are not disclosing the source. Doubt lingers among the public regarding whether they are securing the majority through EVM, and they are doing nothing to dispel that doubt." 

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Samajwadi Party, the Congress’ INDIA bloc partner and ally in Uttar Pradesh, too, was dismissive of the list.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the list was an acknowledgment of defeat.

Yadav said the BJP announced candidates for those seats where it saw a slim chance of victory and had conceded defeat on other seats. 

The Lok Sabha has 543 seats for which elections are held. Two members of the Anglo-Indian Community are nominated to the House.

Yadav also claimed that the BJP was forced to retain several MPs despite their alleged lack of performance or corruption taint, as it feared rebellion.

“BJP’s first list is a declaration of the party’s hopelessness,” Yadav said in his post on the X platform, formerly Twitter.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said the BJP’s decision to not field four prominent party figures in Delhi - Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lekhi and Gautam Gambhir - acknowledged that its “legislators have failed to make a significant impact on the ground and lack visibility among the masses”. 

“Whenever the people required the Centre's support, their representatives in Parliament were absent,” he claimed.

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Trinamool leader Mahua Moitra slammed the list for not naming enough women. 

"BJP announces 195 candidates of which 28 are women. A measly 14%. Whatever happened to the 33% reservation? Where are their vandanas now? Where is Nari Shakti?", the TMC leader, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha, wrote on X.

Among the candidates named by the BJP, 28 are women, 27 are from scheduled castes, 18 from scheduled tribes and 57 from other backward classes (OBCs). A number of the female candidates come from SC, ST, or OBC communities.