Raje in first list of 131 BJP candidates for Rajasthan

The BJP Sunday announced its candidates for 131 of the 200 seats of the Rajasthan Assembly with Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje being fielded from her traditional seat of Jhalrapatan.

The names were announced by senior party leader J P Nadda following a meeting of the BJP central election committee which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its president Amir Shah besides other top leaders.

Raje also attended the meeting.

The party has also fielded its Lok Sabha MP Sona Ram Choudhary in the assembly poll and given tickets to 12 women.

Party sources said about 25 sitting MLAs have been dropped and 85 incumbent legislators have been repeated.

"Party candidates for all the seats we're discussed in the meeting. Names of other nominees will be announced soon," Nadda told reporters.

The BJP is facing a strong challenge from a resurgent Congress in the state with the opposition party winning a number of by-polls in the last couple of years.

A number of opinion polls has also given an edge to the Congress but the BJP has insisted that it will be able to repulse the opposition's challenge.

The saffron party under Raje had won a whopping 163 of the 200 assembly seats in the state in 2013, giving the Congress its worst ever drubbing at its hands.

The state has for the last two decades has seen the incumbent party losing the assembly polls.