New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released its first list of candidates for Bihar assembly polls with 43 names.

The list, announced after a meeting of party's central election committee which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has 19 candidates for the first phase, 15 candidates for the second phase and nine candidates for other phases.

Bihar will go for five-phased election from October 12 to November 5. The notification for the first phase of polls will be issued on Wednesday.

The meeting at the BJP's central office was also attended by party president Amit Shah, union ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar, J.P. Nadda and Dharamendra Pradhan, party's state affairs in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and former union minister Shahnawaz Hussain.

The BJP has decided to contest 160 seats in 243-member Bihar assembly, leaving the remaining to its allies - Lok Janshakti Party, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party.