New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has released its third list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The list contains 36 names from five states — Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam and Meghalaya.

23 candidates have been announced for Andhra Pradesh which will go to polls in the first phase on April 11. Six candidates for Maharashtra, five for Odisha and one candidate each for Assam and Meghalaya have also been listed.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra will contest the elections from Puri parliamentary constituency in Odisha.

In the party’s second list that was also released around the same time, one candidate, Lalubhai Patel, has been announced for the seat from Daman and Diu. The Union Territory votes in the third phase of the polls on April 23.

Among the key names that have been announced are Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, VK Singh.

Smriti Irani will once again battle Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on his home turf in Amethi. 

The BJP had released its first list of 184 candidates on Thursday which confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek re-election from Varanasi, his parliamentary seat. 

The list also said that BJP chief Amit Shah will contest the Lok Sabha elections for the first time from Gandhinagar, where LK Advani is the sitting MP.

In Bihar, the NDA will announce its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections today. 

The State unit Presidents of the BJP, JD(U) and LJP will be present on the occasion. BJP and JD(U) will contest 17 seats each, while LJP will fight in the remaining six constituencies.

In the BJP’s first list, 16 candidates had been listed from Maharashtra, eight from Assam, two from Arunachal Pradesh, five from Chhatisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir each, 21 from Karnataka, 13 from Kerala, 10 from Odisha, 16 from Rajasthan, five from Tamil Nadu, 10 from Telangana, five from Uttarakhand, 28 from West Bengal and two from Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Congress has released its 7th list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls that was finalised by the party Central Election Committee containing the names of 35 candidates. 

The list has four candidates from Chhattishgarh, three from Jammu and Kashmir, five from Maharashtra, two from Odisha, eight from Tamil Nadu, nine from Uttar Pradesh, One each from Puducherry and Telangana and Two Tripura. Raj Babbar will fight from Fatehpuri Sikri this time. The has party fielded former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury from Khammam in Telangana.