BJP announces first candidates list for Lok Sabha polls: Here's where the top candidates including PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah will contest from

BJP has released its candidate list for the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday. 

The elections will begin on April 11, 2019 and culminate on May 19, 2019 .The counting take place on March 23, 2019.

The BJP's central election committee (CEC) met on Wednesday evening to discuss and finalise the candidate list. The third CEC meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley in attendance. 

Congress has announced its candidates for 146 Lok Sabha polls so far.

The BJP announced the candidates for 182 seats on Thursday.

READ | BJP'S FIRST LIST OUT: BJP Releases First List Of 182 Candidates For 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. Here It Is

Here are the some of the top candidates in the first list:

1. Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh
2. Amit Shah will contest from Gandhinagar in Gujarat
3. Rajnath Singh will contest from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh
4. Nitin Gadkari will contes from Nagpur in Maharashtra
5. Hema Malini will contest from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh
6. Smriti Irani will contest from Amethi  in Uttar Pradesh
7. Dr Satyapal Singh will contest from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh
8. Dr Mahesh Sharma will contest from Gautam Buddha Nagar in Uttar Pradesh
9. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir will contest from Chandrapur in Maharashtra
10. Sujay Vikhe, son of Congress leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil in Maharashtra, will contest from Ahmednagar 
11. Poonam Mahajan from Mumbai-North Central in Maharashtra
12. Former Congress leader Dr Umesh Jadhav will contest from Gulbarga in Karnataka
13. Dr Jitendra Singh will contest from Udhampur in J and K
14. Kirren Rijiju will contest from Arunachal East in Arunachal Pradesh
15. Anantkumar Hegde will contest from Uttara Kannada in Karnataka
16. DV Sadananda Gowda will contest from Bengaluru North in Karnataka
17. Sakshi Maharaj will contest from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh
18. Santosh Kumar Gangwar will contest from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh
19. Dr Pritam Gopinath Munde will contest from Beed in Maharashtra
20. Former BJD leader Baijayanta Panda will contest from Kendrapara in Odisha
21. Dr TamilSai Soundarrajan will contest from Thoothukkudi in Tamil Nadu
22. Pon Radhakrishnan will contest from Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu
23. Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will contest from Haridwar in Uttarakhand
24. Chandra Kumar Bose in Kolkata Dakshin in West Bengal
25. Locket Chatterjee will contest from Hoogly in West Bengal
26. Tapan Roy will contest from Arambagh (SC) in West Bengal
27. Dilip Ghosh will contest from Medinipur in West Bengal
28. Babul Supriyo will contest from Asansol in West Bengal
29. Alphons Kannanthanam will contest from Ernakulam in Maharashtra
30. Jual Oram will contest from Sundargarh in Odisha
31. Col Rajyavardhan Rathore will contest from Jaipur Rural in Rajasthan
32. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will contest from Jodhpur in Rajasthan 
33. Babul Supriyo will contest from Asansol in West Bengal
34. Ajay Tamta will contest from Almora in Uttarakhand
35. VK Singh will contest from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh

Read the entire list of 182 candidates below: