BJP drops Pragya Thakur, fields Alok Sharma from Bhopal for 2024 Lok Sabha polls

In a major development, the Bharatiya Janata Party dropped the sitting Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur from its candidate list and instead fielded former Mayor of Bhopal Alok Sharma from the Madhya Pradesh capital city for the Lok Sabha polls.

Pragya has been hogging the limelight for all the wrong reasons ever since she was elected as a parliamentarian. She kicked up a major storm during the 2019 general elections when she referred Mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse a patriot.

The remarks drew wide condemnation, with PM Modi saying that he would never pardon her.

Bhopal constituency has been the stronghold of the BJP, as the saffron party has been winning the seat since 1989. Many BJP veterans describe it as a "safe seat".

Meanwhile, Thaur is currently being tried by a NIA court in Mumbai for her alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon. Pragya Thakur and six others are facing trial in the case under provisions of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On February 24, the NIA court asked BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur to appear before it from Tuesday onwards for recording of statements and warned her of "necessary action" if she fails to do so.

Special Judge A K Lahoti passed this direction on February 22 while granting Thakur's plea for exemption for the day on medical grounds.

The National Investigation Agency court is currently recording statements of the accused under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

In his order, Special Judge Lahoti observed that Thakur and some other accused are not attending the court regularly on the fixed date.

"Time to time, their exemption applications for the reasons put forth by them are also considered by the court. It is observed that some accused are residents of other states and while moving the application they used to mention that they face difficulty in getting tickets at eleventh hour. So, they could not attend the court," the court said.

Also read | BJP releases first list of 195 candidates: Modi from Varanasi, Amit Shah from Gandhinagar