Jaipur, Mar 2 (IANS): The BJP on Saturday released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, including 15 nominees for Rajasthan which has 25 seats.

As per the first list, five Lok Sabha members in Rajasthan have been denied tickets this time.

While Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota, the BJP has also given tickets to two leaders who joined the saffron camp from the Congress recently.

Accordingly, Jyoti Mirdha has been given ticket from Nagaur, while Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya will contest the polls from Dungarpur-Banswara.

While Mirdha had joined the BJP before the Assembly elections held last year-end, Malviya resigned from the post of Congress MLA a few days ago and joined the BJP.

Meanwhile, the BJP has denied tickets to five sitting MP, including Kankamal Katara, who has been replaced by Malviya in Banswara (SC).

Ram Swaroop Koli has been given a ticket in place of Ranjita Koli from Bharatpur (SC), Rahul Kaswan's ticket has been cancelled from Churu and given to Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia, Lumbaram Chaudhary has been made the candidate from Jalore-Sirohi in place of Devji Patel, while Mannalal Rawat has replaced Arjunlal Meena in the Udaipur (ST) reserve seat.

In 2014, the BJP had won all the 25 seats in Rajasthan. In 2019, BJP had left the Nagaur seat for Hanuman Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) as part of an alliance. While Beniwal won, the BJP swept the remaining 24 seats.