Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary Vinod Tawde, on Saturday, March 2, announced candidates for 195 constituencies across the country as part of the first list, for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The list has names of candidates for constituencies in 16 states and  two Union Territories. There are a total of 28 women candidates, 27 from Scheduled Caste (SC), 18 from Scheduled Tribes (ST), and 57 from Other Backward Classes (OBC). The list also has 34 Union ministers and ministers of state and two former chief ministers.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be contesting from the Varanasi constituency, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will seek the mandate again from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar constituency. 

The key BJP leaders announced in the first list are:

> Prime Minister Narendra Modi - Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

> Union Home Minister Amit Shah - Gandhinagar, Gujarat

> Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya - Porbandhar, Gujarat

> Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh - Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

> Former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan - Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh

> Union Minister Smriti Irani - Amethi, Uttar Pradesh

> Union Minister Kiren Rijiju - Arunachal West, Arunachal Pradesh

> Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia - Guna, Madhya Pradesh

> Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar - Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

> Union Minister of State G Kishan Reddy - Secunderabad, Telangana

> MP Manoj Tiwari - North East Delhi

> Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh - Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir 

> MP Nishikant Dubey - Godda, Jharkhand 

> Union MInister Arjun Ram Meghwal - Bikaner, Rajasthan

> Union Minister Bhupender Yadav - Alwar, Rajasthan

> LS Speaker OM BIrla - Kota, Rajasthan

> Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra Teni - Kheri, Uttar Pradesh

> BJP’s national secretary Anil Antony - Pathanamthitta, Kerala

> Former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan - Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh

> Actor-politician Suresh Gopi - Thrissur, Kerala

The list includes 195 candidates for 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 11 seats each from Assam, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 9 seats from Telangana, 5 from Delhi, 2 from Jammu and Kashmir, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh and 1 each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar and Daman & Diu.