Lok Sabha elections 2019: BJP CEC to meet again today, 2nd list of candidates expected

New Delhi, Mar 22: The BJP's central election committee (CEC), which is scheduled to meet on Friday as part of its deliberations to finalise candidates for the second list for the Lok Sabha polls 2019, is expected to release the second set of nominees after the meeting.

This will be the fourth meeting of the CEC, BJP's highest decision-making body, on the selection of candidates.

Earlier on Thursday, the party had released its first list of 184 candidates. The list was announced by Union health minister JP Nadda.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from Varanasi, while BJP president Amit Shah will contest from Gandhinagar, which is veteran BJP leader LK Advani's seat. Union home minister Rajnath Singh will contest the elections from Lucknow with Nitin Gadkari contesting from Nagpur.

The CEC has already held wide-ranging discussions on the selection of its candidates for Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chattisgarh and all eight north-eastern states.

On Tuesday, the party had announced that it will drop its all 10 incumbent MPs from Chhattisgarh and replace them with new faces, a decision that comes in the wake of the party's drubbing in the recent assembly elections.