In its second list for the coming Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday dropped Union Minister of State for Water Resources Bijoya Chakravarty and fielded Leader of the Opposition in Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi, from Bhagalpur and singer Bhupen Hazarika from Guwahati.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs O Rajagopal, a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, will contest from Thiruvananthapuram while S Krishna Kumar, a former Union minister in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet who joined the BJP last year, has been fielded from Mavelikkara in Kerala.
Announcing the additional list of 96 names after a daylong meeting of the Central Election Committee at Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence, party general secretary Pramod Mahajan also declared that Minister of State for Coal Prahlad Singh Patel would be pitted against Congress leader Kamal Nath in Chhindwara seat of Madhya Pradesh.
The BJP had on Sunday released 136 names in its first list.