Shivaji's descendant Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale in BJP's 12th list

NEW DELHI: BJP on Tuesday announced its 12th list of candidates, including Abhijit Das Bobby who will challenge incumbent TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee in West Bengal's Diamond Harbour and Anita Som Prakash who has replaced her spouse and sitting member Som Prakash, also a Union minister, in Punjab's Hoshiarpur.

A prominent name on the list is Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale, the 13th descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, from Satara in Maharashtra. Bhosale, who crossed over from NCP to BJP in 2022, will be aiming for redemption after losing the seat to NCP in a byelection.

Other candidates declared on Tuesday included Shashank Mani Tripathi and Thakur Vishwadeep Singh from Uttar Pradesh's Deoria and Firozabad respectively. As expected, the party has fielded Parampal Kaur Sidhu, who just quit the IAS, to take on Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the 2019 winner, in Bathinda. Manjeet Singh Manna Miawind was named from Khadoor Sahib.

BJP has brought back Abhijit Das Bobby who was routed by Banerjee in Diamond Harbour in 2014. He had garnered around 16% of the vote and finished far behind the runner-up, CPM's Abul Hasnat who secured 35% votes against TMC's 40%. BJP, with Nilanjan Roy as its candidate, came back strongly in 2019 and improved its vote share, relegating CPM to a poor third.

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