NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi again.

The announcement of the candidate list follows a marathon meeting of the central election committee (CEC) of the BJP in the early hours of Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP’s National President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh, Chief Ministers, State Presidents, In-charges, Co-Incharges, and Election In-charges of various states were present in this meeting. Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Assam, Uttarakhand, and Goa were present at the meeting.

Earlier in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi secured a victory in Varanasi with 6,74,664 against Congress’s Ajay Rai.
The BJP-led National Democratic (NDA) won a total of 303 seats, leaving the grand-old party behind at 52 seats.
The Lok Sabha polls are slated to be held in April-May this year.
(With inputs from agencies)