The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its first list of 131 candidates for the Rajasthan assembly elections.

The names were announced by senior party leader JP Nadda following a meeting of the BJP central election committee, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje besides other top leaders.

Nadda said the party has fielded 25 new faces. Sources told Press Trust of India that 85 sitting legislators have found their names on the first list.

There were 12 women, 32 youth, 17 SC and 19 ST candidates in the list. There are 85 sitting MLAs and 25 new faces in the list, according to ANI.

भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने राजस्थान विधानसभा चुनाव के लिए पहली सूची जारी की। pic.twitter.com/v8RTbWJcQE

— BJP Rajasthan (@BJP4Rajasthan) November 11, 2018

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, ministers Gulab Chand Kataria, Rajendra Rathore, Arun Chaturvedi, Shrichand Kriplani, Kiran Maheshwari, Vasudev Devnani, Anita Bhadel and Prabhulal Saini have been repeated.

Raje will contest from Jhalrapatan, a seat she has represented since 2003. The BJP under Raje won a whopping 163 of the 200 assembly seats in the state in 2013.

The assembly election is a precursor to the 2019 general elections and the BJP is keen to retain power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The first phase of Chhattisgarh voting began on Monday under a tight security blanket comprising over 1.25 lakh police and paramilitary personnel. The second phase of polls will see voting in 72 seats on November 20.

(With inputs from agencies)

First Published:Nov 12, 2018 8:21 AM IST