Lok Sabha polls: PM Modi, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and other Union ministers in fray
The Lok Sabha elections will kick off on Friday, with polling in 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) quest for a third consecutive term at the Centre, will begin on Friday, when polling will be held for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories. The remaining 441 parliamentary constituencies will vote in six subsequent phases, the last of which will be on June 1, followed by counting of votes of June 4.
From the BJP, several ministers, including the trio of PM Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, will be in the fray. Party heavyweights not contesting include its national president JP Nadda, and Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance), S Jaishankar (External Affairs), and Ashwini Vaishnaw (Railways, IT), among others. Each of them is a Rajya Sabha member, representing the states of Gujarat (Nadda, Jaishankar), Karnataka (Sitharaman) and Odisha (Vaishnaw).
List of Union ministers contesting Lok Sabha polls:
| Candidate | Constituency | State |
| Narendra Modi (Prime Minister) | Varanasi | Uttar Pradesh |
| Rajnath Singh (Defence Minister) | Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh |
| Amit Shah (Home and Cooperation) | Gandhinagar | Gujarat |
| Nitin Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways) | Nagpur | Maharashtra |
| Smriti Irani (Women and Child Development; Minority Affairs) | Amethi | Uttar Pradesh |
| Anurag Thakur (Sports and Youth Affairs; I&B) | Hamirpur | Himachal Pradesh |
| Arjun Munda (Agriculture) | Khunti | Jharkhand |
| Bhupender Yadav (Environment) | Alwar | Rajasthan |
| Jyotiraditya Scindia (Civil Aviation) | Guna | Madhya Pradesh |
| Dharmendra Pradhan (Education) | Sambalpur | Odisha |
| Gajendra Shekhawat (Jal Shakti) | Jodhpur | Rajasthan |
| Mansukh Mandaviya (Health) | Porbandar | Gujarat |
| Arjun Ram Meghwal (Law) | Bikaner | Rajasthan |
| Sarbananda Sonowal (Ports; Shipping and Waterways; AYUSH) | Dibrugarh | Assam |
| Kiren Rijiju (Earth Sciences) | Arunachal West | Arunachal Pradesh |
| Narayan Rane (MSME) | Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg | Maharashtra |
| G Kishan Reddy (Tourism and Culture; North East Development) | Secunderabad | Telangana |
| V Muraleedharan (MoS: External Affairs) | Attingal | Kerala |
| Parshottam Rupala (MoS: Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries) | Rajkot | Gujarat |
| Rajeev Chandrasekhar (MoS: Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; IT) | Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala |
| Kailash Choudhary (MoS: Agriculture) | Barmer | Rajasthan |
| Shobha Karandlaje (MoS: Agriculture) | Bangalore North | Karnataka |
| Nisith Pramanik (MoS: Home Affairs; Sports and Youth Affairs) | Cooch Behar | West Bengal |
| Nityanand Rai (MoS: Home Affairs) | Ujiarpur | Bihar |
| Ajay Bhatt (MoS: Defence) | Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar | Uttarakhand |
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