Lok Sabha polls: Who is Abdul Salam, only Muslim in BJP's first list?

Out of 195 candidates declared by the BJP in its first list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Abdul Salam is the only Muslim.

Salam, who joined the saffron party in 2019, has been fielded from Kerala's Malappuram. Hailing from Tirur, he served as the vice chancellor of Calicut University from 2011 to 2015.

In 2021, Salam fought the Kerala Assembly election from the Nemom constituency. He is one of the 12 BJP candidates announced from Kerala so far.

In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP could not win any of the 20 seats. This time, the party has fielded Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, a seat currently held by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi for a third time. Thirty-four union ministers, including heavyweights like Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh will contest from their current Gandhinagar and Lucknow seats respectively.

Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna (Madhya Pradesh), Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh (Assam), Bhupender Yadav from Alwar (Rajasthan), Rajeev Chandrashekhar from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), V Muraleedharan from Attingal (Kerala) Parshottam Rupala from Rajkot (Gujarat) and Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar (Gujarat).

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