BJP announces list of women candidates for LS poll

After a marathon meeting of its Central Election Committee, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the names of some senior women leaders, who will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The names include Sushma Swaraj from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, Yashodhara Raje from Gwalior, Sumitra Mahajan from Indore, Karuna Shukla from Korba, Kamla Patle from Jangir-Champa, J Shanthi from Bellary and Bindu Chaudhary from Nagpur.

"We have finalised the candidates for 46 seats today and 120 candidates have been cleared earlier. For some seats, we have to wait for our allies' responses," Jaitley said.

Party general secretary Arun Jaitley said that the name of actress Hema Malani could be considered for the LS seats in Delhi. "All those names which did not figure in the list today would be taken up on March 9. Hemaji could also figure in the list," he explained.

Swaraj's will contest from Vidisha instead of Bhopal this year, as former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Kailash Joshi has threatened to revolt against the party if the Bhopal seat is not allotted to him.