The BJP has decided to speed up the process for finalising party candidates for all major States. The Central Election Committee (CEC) expects to wrap up a majority of the process by the first fortnight of March.
According to sources, the next round of list is expected by March 8 and yet another by March 13 which "would take care of senior candidates too".
These two lists, besides the first of 54 candidates already released on Friday, would primarily focus on "sitting MPs and original BJP candidates". Some of the contentious seats would be left to be decided by party president Rajnath Singh in consultations with senior colleagues, sources said.
A little shuffling of seats is expected in the electorally important State of Uttar Pradesh with Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Sravasti figuring as key constituencies.
Ticket seekers from other parties or those who have joined it recently have made the finalisation of list tough with "home candidates" resenting "outsiders", they said
Party veterans lK Advani, MP from Gandhinagar and Murli Manohar Joshi from Varanasi are expected to throw their hat in the electoral fray.
Advani has publicly expressed his interest in contesting election from Gandhinagar but left it to party to decide his candidature.
"I have come here today to Gandhinagar to participate in a vigilance committee meeting, which clearly shows that I am interested. But party will take a final decision," Advani told newspersons in Ahmedabad on Friday.
Besides former party president Nitin Gadkari and deputy leader in the lok Sabha Gopinath Munde who have been named as party's candidates from Nagpur and Beed (Maharashtra) lok Sabha seats, the first list of the BJP did not include any big guns in the party.
Almost all seniors barring one or two (like M Venkaiah Naidu) will contest the lok Sabha polls, said a member of the Central Parliamentary Board.
The lok Sabha seat for the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will be decided "at appropriate time", sources said giving hints that a possibility of his contesting outside his home State is not ruled out.