BJP announces first list of its candidates for LS polls, PM Modi to contest from Varanasi; FULL LIST HERE

Lok Sabha Elections 2019: As the nation celebrates Holi today, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of candidates for the first and second phases of the election. BJP announced PM Narendra Modi will fight elections from Varanasi, party chief Amit Shah from Gandhinagar, Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, while Nitin Gadkari will contest election from Nagpur. The announcement was made by the Union minister J P Nadda who released the list of the names of 184 candidates who will fight from their respective constituencies this national election. The BJP announced its candidates from many states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. The party has finalised names of all 17 party candidates from Bihar and sent the list to the state unit which will announce it jointly with allies, Nadda said. Check the list as mentioned below: Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party released a list of 18 candidates for Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim Assembly elections. It included six names from Arunachal Pradesh and 12 from Sikkim.

List of BJP candidates for ensuing general election to the legislative assembly 2019 of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim finalised by BJP CEC. pic.twitter.com/zkKEY4hkMs

— BJP (@BJP4India) March 21, 2019

BJP's highest decision-making body met on Wednesday on the selection of candidates. The party had met for the third time in the last six days. On Tuesday evening, it had held a seven-hour-long discussion to deliberate upon the names of party's candidates in various states. Another meeting of the BJP’s election committee has been called on March 22 to discuss various names. Meanwhile, the Congress has already released six lists for the national elections. The party, which is trying to stitch an alliance of opposition parties against the Modi government, released its sixth list on Wednesday. The General Elections will be held in seven phases, starting from April 11, while the results of all the phases will be declared on May 23. Announcing the seven-phase schedule for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora also said 10 lakh polling stations would be set up this time as against about nine lakhs in 2014. In the first phase, 91 constituencies will go for polls, 97 constituencies in the second phase, 115 constituencies in the third, 71 in the fourth phase, 51 in the fifth phase, 59 in the sixth phase and 59 in the seventh phase. In the first phase, the polling will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Delhi, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand.