New Delhi, March 3 -- Signalling battle readiness for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP on Thursday declared the first list of 195 candidates fielding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the third straight time from his constituency Varanasi.
47 youth | 28 women | 27 SCs | 18 STs | 57 OBCs/BCs
Senior ministers will defend their turfs - Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will contest from his current segment Lucknow; Union Home Minister Amit Shah from Gandhinagar; Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi; Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal West; MoS (PMO) Jitendra Singh from Udhampur; and Agriculture Minister Arjun Munda from the Khunti ST seat in Jharkhand.
As expected, the BJP has fielded top ...