Poll bugle sounded:

With the dates for Lok Sabha elections announced on Monday, the poll ball has been set rolling and the parties are scrambling to finalise the lists of candidates for the electoral battle, starting April 16.

Accordingly, the state wing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing a panel of the probable candidates in the state. A three-day meet of the BJP’s parliamentary committee will formally meet on Tuesday and finalise the list of candidates to be fielded in the polls, slated for April 30.

The final list will be sent to Delhi for the party high-command to decide in a meeting of the state executive which is scheduled to meet on March 5.

The BJP has nearly completed the process of selecting panels of candidates for the 26 seats in the state. Party observes have also completed visits of these constituencies. The Gandhinagar seat will be contested by LK Advani, prime ministerial candidate of the party. The meeting of the state parliamentary committee, which has already started from February 28, will however, formally meet on Tuesday.

While the party has already decided on the names of probable candidates from central, north and south Gujarat, names that will appear on the final list will be done on the last day of the meet on Tuesday before being sent to Delhi for approval.

According to the sources, the state leadership has already made a panel for seats such as Mehsana, Kutch, Patan, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, Vadodara, Panchmahal, Chhota Udepur, Bharuch, Bardoli, Navsari, Anand, Bhavanagar and Valsad.

The party has kept its door open for Kashiram Rana, a veteran leader, for the Navasari and Surat seats. While former minister for agriculture Bhupendrasinh Chudasama can be fielded from Kheda.

The names of the IK Jadeja, spokesperson of the party, and Bhavna Dave, former MP, are also emerging for the seat of Surendranagar, whose sitting MP, Soma Patel, has quit the party.