Gorakhpur: Bhojpuri film star Ravi Kishan expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after being nominated once again by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to contest from Gorakhpur in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Gorakhpur has been Kishan's stronghold since his victory in the 2019 elections.

PM Modi himself will be contesting from Varanasi for the third consecutive time, a seat he has held since 2014 when he defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. In 2019, PM Modi secured victory against Samajwadi Party's Shalini Yadav.

"I want to thank the top leadership wholeheartedly... The organization gave me a second chance from the hottest seat after Kashi. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the entire organization and Prime Minister Modi. I will maintain this trust... BJP will win 400 seats and Gorakhpur seat will create history," said BJP MP Ravi Kishan.

Ravi Kishan, a prominent Bhojpuri actor, will be contesting from Gorakhpur, which has traditionally been a stronghold of Yogi Adityanath, the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh who held the seat until 2017.

In the 2019 elections, Ravi Kishan secured victory against SP candidate Rambhual Nishad with a lead of more than 3 lakh votes.

The BJP announced its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, naming 34 Union Ministers, including heavyweights like Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh. The list includes 28 women, 47 youth, 27 Scheduled Castes, 18 Scheduled Tribes, and 57 OBCs.

There have been significant changes in the BJP's candidate selection in Delhi, with Manoj Tiwari being the only candidate fielded from northeast Delhi, and Meenakshi Lekhi being replaced by Basuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP veteran Sushma Swaraj, from New Delhi. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will contest from Vidisha constituency, Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from Kota.

With PM Modi encouraging senior ministers from the Rajya Sabha to contest Lok Sabha elections, Union Ministers like Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and V Muraleedharan have been fielded from various constituencies across India.

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