The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled their first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024 on Saturday. The ruling party revealed the legendary para-athlete Devendra Jhajharia as their candidate from Rajasthan’s Churu constituency. 

Devendra Jhajharia, 42, was the first Indian athlete to win two Gold medals in the Summer Paralympics games. He also won the silver in the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2020 and Gold in the IPC World Championships in 2013.

BJP releases the first list of 195 candidates, including 15 from Rajasthan after a party meeting at headquarters in New Delhi today. BJP has been in power in Churu since 1999 with Rahul Kaswan winning the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019. 

Jhajharia was born in Churu and is a popular figure in the Indian sports community. He was the first-ever para-athlete to be conferred with the Padma Shri award in 2012. He was also honoured with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour of India, in 2017 and with Padma Bhushan in 2022. 

BJP Candidate List 2024 (Rajasthan):

1. Arjan Ram Meghwal from Bikaner
2. Devendra Jhajharia from Churu
3. Swami Sumedhanand Saraswati from Sikar
4. Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar
5. Ramswaroop Koli from Bharatpur
6. Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur
7. PP Chaudhary from Pali
8. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Jodhpur
9. Kailash Chaudhary from Barmer
10. Lumbaram Chaudhary from Jalore
11. Mannalal Rawat from Udaipur
12. Mahendra Malviya from Banswara
13. CP Joshi from Chittorgarh
14. Om Birla from Kota
15. Dushyant Singh from Jhalawar

Meanwhile, Jhajharia is set to be elected unopposed in the elections for the President at the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI). He filed his nomination on February 28 and was the only candidate to contest for the top position in PCI.