New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary Vinod Tawde on Saturday announced the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, featuring name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will contest from the incumbent Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh. 

"PM Modi to contest Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiran Rijiju to contest from Arunachal West, BJP MP Bishnu Pada Ray to contest from Andaman & Nicobar, BJP MP Tapir Gao to contest from Arunachal East, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to contest from Dibrugarh," said Tawde.

Announcing the first list of 195 candidates for Lok Sabha elections, Tawde confirmed that list includes 34 central ministers and MoS and Lok Sabha Speaker.

The development follows multiple rounds of discussions during the inaugural session of the BJP's central election committee which convened at the party headquarters on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the late-night Central Election Committee (CEC) meet of the BJP to finalise the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The meeting, which began around 10.30 pm, lasted for more than four hours, on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by leaders such as BJP National President JP Nadda, Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh.

Last week, top BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, party chief JP Nadda, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting to discuss the "weak seats" on which the party may face a stiff electoral challenge.