The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released list of five candidates, nominating Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri from Amritsar and renominating four of its MPs. The BJP has an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, and it will contest three out of 13 seats of Punjab. Amritsar-born Puri is a diplomat-turned-politician who was inducted as a minister for housing and urban affairs in the Narendra Modi government in September 2017. He later became a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in January 2018. The BJP also decided to field Shankar Lalwani from Indore seat, replacing Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who opted out of the race after the party decided not to field any 75-plus leader in this Lok Sabha elections.

Source: Hindustan Times April 21, 2019 18:22 UTC